Status Quo
by HarunaRei
Summary: Classic/Megamix. There's something Rock should know. He doesn't. Wily can't believe it, Blues is unamused, Dr. Light is worried, Kalinka has a scrapbook and an enemy of Blues' seizes this opportunity for revenge. Cowritten with Laryna6.
1. Disruption

_Wait, I can explain! Laryna6 and I were looking some things up for Recovery, and I brought up that Rock doesn't know that Protoman is his older brother in Capcom canon. Which is absolutely unbelievable, right? Maybe he's gullible like Dr. Light is. Anyway, if you go to Protoman's page on the wikia and look at his info from "Rockman Battle & Fighters", it says in there that Rock doesn't know. Well, it's in Japanese. I translated part of it, but I had to ask a fluent friend about some things in the first sentence especially. It's all in hiragana, so that made it more difficult._

_ Anyway, it roughly says, "The prototype robot, although Rockman is unaware, is his older brother. He loves solitude and acts upon his own beliefs." So after all this time, and this is a long time, Rock still somehow doesn't know. He doesn't know in the manga, either. None of them put two-and-two together and really, they come off as adorably dense._

_ Either way, this story isn't what we'd consider an interpretation of exactly what's going on in canon. Interpretation plus artistic license: no point in fan fiction if you don't deviate from the official story. I sort of feel like, for Mega Man fanfiction, if you don't write the robots as robots, and I mean that if a human with an arm cannon equivalent could take Rock's place, or anyone's place, then the story is rather boring. I like xenofiction and I think that their mentality would be different from a human's. They'd still be people, certainly, still capable of a broad range of emotions, but how and why they manifest, what triggers them, what they consider acceptable/appropriate, and how their social structure is set up should differ from humanity._

_ This was also partially inspired by the release of Gigamix 2. Blues looks dapper, I'm not even kidding. He's dressed nicely and I'm like, "Kiddo, you live in a warehouse, where are you going that you're dressed so nicely?" ::pats Blues::_

_ Also:_

_ Part of this premise was jossed by Gigamix 2. One concept that we've played with was that Drs. Light and Wily weren't actually intending to make a sentient robot, that it was an unforeseen result in their research. Gigamix 2 spells it out clearly that the sentience was the aim._

_ This is yet another collaboration between Laryna6 and HarunaRei. We don't own Rockman or any of the trademarked or registered characters. If we did, then Legends wouldn't have been canceled._

* * *

><p>This was the ninth time Rock found himself running through a skull fortress. Each one was a little bit different, each one a bit more detailed, a bit more elaborate, a bit more confusing than the last. Rock wondered if Wily was the one who did each redesign, or if one of his robot masters was delegated to the task. Wily must have his hands full with building new robot masters for each war.<p>

Rock didn't think that people really understood how much time and effort had to go into making one, especially for someone like Wily who couldn't go through legitimate channels for parts. That was why Wilybots were robbing places so often. If it wasn't for Wily's newest project, it was for their own upkeep, their own maintenance. They didn't have the three laws but even if they had, Rock wasn't sure that would stop them. Especially if no humans were being harmed in the process. Though the second law would be harder to get around if there were humans there for it.

If there weren't? If it was getting the parts or dying? Third law precedence, no contest.

It made Rock immensely grateful that Dr. Light was there and could look after them, that there was no shortage of parts or materials when something did go awry. Because stealing was stealing, no matter how justified it may have seemed. It was still wrong.

He never wanted to have to be wrong in order to survive.

But now there was a government-imposed upper age limit for robot masters manufactured after a certain date. He, Roll, and his oldest brothers were unaffected; only the newest line was being executed, but…

It made Rock wonder about what robot masters meant to humans. About what he meant to humans. Were they really disposable, the same as a dishwasher? A toaster? He knew Dr. Light never would, but if robot masters ever were approved for private ownership, would he have cousins who were thrown away because their owners became bored with them? Even though they were people, too?

The ones that rebelled this time were Dr. Light's robots, were all his creations, and he was being held accountable for their actions. Even now that they'd found it was Dr. Wily who encouraged them to revolt, they were slow to release Dr. Light.

Rock didn't know how he felt about all this. His siblings weren't wrong. They wanted to live, wanted to be of use, the same way he did. The same way any robot master would. There was nothing wrong with them, there was no reason they couldn't have upgrades, but instead, the human government condemned them to death. It was so wrong, so twisted, so illogical. Rock couldn't comprehend their reasoning. No matter what conditions he attributed to the decision-making process, nothing he was calculating could possibly lead to this. So how had the humans come to this conclusion?

At least when his brothers had been condemned, it was because they had actually hurt people, and the government changed their mind when they didn't want to work with Wily again and it was obvious that it hadn't been their fault. Dr. Light explained about elections and politics, that these weren't the same people in power now, but it felt so unfair. Why did he have to do this all over again?

Still, they'd been spared last time, once they were rescued, so he just had to hope that it would happen again.

Rock was still angry with Wily. He'd put everyone in danger so many times. But, this time, like when he'd sent some of his robot masters to rescue Rock's brothers from the place they were sent to be destroyed, he may have just saved their lives. They had a chance now, these brothers and this sister, and the ones Dr. Light had built after them. Surely the humans would do the right thing again.

But now Dr. Light was in trouble again, was kidnapped again, and it made Rock think of when the Darkmen kidnapped him while posing as Blues. Or the time when he was arrested when the copy of Rock was rampaging. Rock had something of a sick feeling blooming inside him despite not having a stomach or really the ability to feel truly nauseous. He could feel an emotional sickness, though, and by now he could recognize it. Anxiety, unease, trepidation. He needed to move faster, get there faster, even though there were robots positioned everywhere to slow him down, trying to impede his progress.

He hated having to fight, hated having to hurt to get people to stop doing this. It wasn't even the robots' fault and he knew they were just doing their jobs, but he still felt _bad._ Even though stopping them was his job right now.

And oh, the door into Wily's room was right ahead. It was a bit of a relief, even though Rock knew that the crazed doctor would have some kind of a ridiculously overpowered machine in there, a final push against Rock. No matter how many times Wily was defeated, no matter how many times he was put into jail, he always seemed able to escape (usually with the aid of his robot masters), always with another trick up his sleeve, another trap.

Why couldn't he just admit defeat and stop?

Now that he was here, he could try asking, one more time, try pleading, try reasoning with him. Dr. Wily was more lucid some days than others, but if he'd just _listen…_

Oh, dear. It was the happy, cackling Wily. The 'I've got a secret,' one. This was never good.

But at least he'd told Rock where Dr. Light was being kept.

Rock was startled when another Wilybot showed up then, but it was Blues. Blues attacked him sometimes, but he'd helped save Dr. Light from crashing into the asteroid and he'd saved Roll and Kalinka. Of course, the time he'd saved Roll was right after Forte saved Roll and then decided that the Darkmen had the right idea, kidnapping her to get to Rock and so kidnapped her himself. And right after that, Blues had just... torn through a lot of Sniper Joes—he didn't like them because Wily had based them on him, which might be why he was so mean to Rock's copy that time—and made Forte attack Rock, hurting a lot of other people in the process.

Blues was a lot like Wily: Rock was never really sure what he was going to do. He was also even more dangerous than Wily: he'd once attacked Rock's brothers when Rock wasn't there and torn through them just as easily as those Sniper Joes.

But, most of the time, when he did attack Rock he went easy on him, unlike his younger brother Forte, and sometimes he was helpful. Like that time he'd rescued Kalinka.

And he'd saved Dr. Light, and then saved Rock from Gamma. Blues was... erratic, and a lot like Dr. Wily, in that he was brilliant and did some very mean things, but Rock didn't think that he was a bad robot.

Though honestly, trying to understand Blues' motives was like looking at the results of an equation, knowing that there's an underlying order to it, but never being able to figure it out regardless of how many sample "answers" you're given.

It made him feel a bit bad; a robot master like him shouldn't have trouble putting two-and-two together.

Either way, Blues never appeared before Rock working in tandem with Wily; Wily's schemes usually disagreed with Blues' beliefs, went against what he considered to be decent.

If he was here, it was probably to support Rock, and that made him feel better. It wasn't fun to have to go through this alone every time. Blues' presence, knowing he was watching over him, knowing he was looking to help him really helped Rock. Even if he was only there in spirit, even if he was always watching from behind, it was _something._

It felt nostalgic, like when he'd just been a new lab assistant, and Dr. Light had been watching over him.

There was a lot about Blues that felt nostalgic. That clicked. They way they fought: Rock supposed that he reflected Blues' fighting style by now since he was the one that trained him, but it worked _really well_ against the Wilybots. Even the other Wilybots were wary of Blues, didn't quite trust him, but Rock did. Every time, what Blues did turned out for the best. Even if what he was doing at the moment seemed wrong—like holding his buster to Kalinka's head—in hindsight, it made a certain amount of sense. She and Dr. Cossack were standing _right there,_ in the midst of the fighting. If a stray shot hit either one of them? Humans couldn't be repaired, not from something like that. Everyone had to calm down then (first law precedence) and from there, the fighting was contained. At least until the copy engaged Forte, but they were far, far away from the Cossacks by then.

Rock just wished that Blues took the time to justify himself to others rather than just leaving and letting everyone not trust him. That had to hurt, even if he acted like it didn't.

Like, right now, Blues was probably right that Dr. Light wasn't in the room. Dr. Wily was obviously in a gloating mood even though he'd just lost, and Blues always knew these things.

Still, Rock had to go check, because if Blues was wrong? If something happened to Rock's family?

He couldn't take that risk.

Dr. Wily cackled. "You aren't going to take your brother's word for it, are you? Not when Dr. Light just stood there and watched _him_ die..." That was all Wily said, because Blues _backhanded _him.

The crack of Blues' gloved hand on his face was louder than it should have been.

Rock shot at Wily before, but that was because his machines always had shields, so it was safe. He also knew that Blues didn't mind physical violence: he'd kicked the Darkmen's heads off, Cut had said, the night Forte and Blues met.

Rock froze then, eyes widening. Blues backhanding Wily, even a robot replica, should have shocked Rock, but the old scientist's words rocked him much harder. "…Brother?" That single word was all that Rock really registered, his systems screeching to a halt. Blues was a Wilybot, so why was Wily…

Dr. Light watched him _die?_ Blue eyes wide, Rock's gaze went from Dr. Wily to Blues. Blues _backhanded_ him. To make Wily stop talking. So Wily was telling the truth? But then…

His _brother?_

"Oh come now, this can't possibly be a surprise to you—seriously? Seriously!" Wily's incredulous surprise was replaced by near-outrage, but he didn't say anything more. He was laughing too hard.

Blues just looked at him, and it was hard to tell with those shades (it was hard to see any of his face at all), but Rock thought he was glaring.

The slap was less of a surprise: Dr. Wily was basically hysterical, and Rock had heard of slapping people when the were hysterical, to get them to calm down.

Or perhaps it was that he'd already seen Blues hit him once.

"But... I thought you were a Wilybot." He'd come to attack him with Wily's third series. "Shadowman was surprised when you betrayed Wily," but, Rock realized, hadn't there maybe been some element there, some hint that Shadowman wasn't entirely surprised? Elecman and Iceman had betrayed Wily before: had Shadowman suspected that Blues would betray him because he was a Lightbot?

And the way that Blues had been distracted, during their fight, when Dr. Light's face had appeared on that screen?

Rock looked between Wily and Blues again, his shoulders slumping. "But…why didn't you…" Why didn't you ever tell me? All these years, and you were _family,_ and you never said a thing? Was he upset with them somehow, was that why? Had Rock done something?

Or had Dr. Light? Wily said Dr. Light watched him die, but Dr. Light wouldn't…his father wasn't like that. Rock's eyes were wide, confused, and pleading. Why? Why did he have to find out this way? Why hadn't Blues told him? Why hadn't Blues trusted him?

"Why didn't _you?_ I thought you'd known for _years," _Dr. Wily told Rock. "It's curious that you don't... Did you tamper with his memory? Or did Dr. Light? After all, anyone who has studied the history of robotics would know about Protoman. The original robot master, that got extra credit on the Turing test by convincing the examiner that _they _were a computer—Dr. Light was speechless when he found out that you'd gone online and read XKCD." Dr. Wily started laughing again, almost doubled over, and normally, Rock would have been concerned, because that couldn't possibly be good for him.

All Rock could do was look to Blues, at a loss for words. He'd…it was true that Blues always acted as the senior unit, but Rock didn't think in terms of activation time and Blues' AI was clearly set to be older than his own. Blues was being helpful, wanting to mentor, and Rock needed the help. So the way their relationship evolved never seemed odd to Rock, even though logically, Rock should have been the older unit.

But no, Blues was actually older and more experienced, and not just in combat. In _everything._

And Dr. Light never mentioned anything either. Did Roll know? Did his other brothers? Had the Wilybots? Was Rock really the last to know?

"The one Dr. Light didn't program with the three laws because he never thought it would be truly sentient," Dr. Wily continued. "The one..." He just laughed in the face of Blues' buster. "If you shoot me, you'll die. Permanently, this time."

"And the blast from your replacement generator will take you with me," Blues said evenly. "Because you couldn't remove them from me. So much for the genius greater than Dr. Light."

"Please, wait!" No! He didn't want Blues to get hurt, even if Dr. Wily was just taunting. He could tell his, his _older brother_ (his only older brother!) was angry, angrier than Rock had ever seen him. He was still calm, collected, his voice was still even, but he'd learned to read Blues to some extent over the years.

He was furious.

Rock stepped forward, then again. One arm reaching up, plaintive, pleading, toward Blues even though he was clear across the room.

Wily only grinned all the broader, "And then your little brother will be caught up in the blast."

"He's armored: you aren't." Human.

"Not against a nuclear blast." Child.

Rock could only look between the two, nervous, still approaching, albeit slowly.

Blues' lips curled upward. It couldn't really be called a smile. "And who says that isn't a bonus? You're the one that just pointed out why I would want Dr. Light to suffer?"

"Because _you're_ one to go out of your way to help, to groom someone to defend themselves, to protect them just so you can blow them up in the end." Please. Look at how much you're upsetting him with such cutting words.

Blues' smirk only deepened as the room the fake Dr. Light had been in exploded.

Because that was the idea.

Rock cried out, eyes wide because what if Dr. Light had really been in there? He ran into the room, he had to go and see because what if Dr. Light had been in there?

And Blues was still aiming his buster at Dr. Wily.

And Dr. Wily was _seething._

When Rock came back, Dr. Wily was gone, and so was Blues. He hoped they hadn't left together, because Blues had been _really _angry.

Rock was trembling a bit, and at first he thought it was a malfunction, that perhaps something was knocked loose during one of the fights, but his diagnostics returned that his physical components were functioning.

They returned that his trembling was the consequence of his emotional state. He looked down at his hands in wonder, more than a little confused and even a little frightened. Shaking like a leaf, he'd heard on a TV show. He could easily veto his emotional state, force himself into a calmer mood, but Dr. Light said that that caused a great deal of stress on his systems. The same way repressing hurt humans.

It was strange; he didn't feel like crying, he wasn't sad, not really. He wasn't happy, either. He was...in shock, his scans returned. Shock resulting from emotional stress, from physical stress. He needed to go home and rest. He needed time to process this, but not here. He needed to be somewhere safe. The teleport shields were gone, so he went home.

Dr. Wily really was a genius, inventing something like teleportation. It really had been a privilege to watch him work with Dr. Light that time and think that the fighting would really be over.

Auto was waiting for him at the receiving capsules. He was thankful for that. He knew that Dr. Light would be released from police custody soon, so he let Auto lead him into the lab.

It was rare for Rock to look this upset, though, right after a war. Tired, yes, disappointed in Wily, always, but he looked like he almost wanted to cry. Auto set his jaw in the equivalent of a frown. He led Rock to one of the exam tables and helped him hook up into the computer system so his status could be copied. Auto could help, but Rock was better at spotting problems in his own systems. Now that he was home and he wasn't in a hostile environment, he was able to assess himself more comprehensively. He compiled a list of problems and separated out the ones he could rectify by himself and uploaded what Dr. Light would need to address into the main computer. He could have waited for Dr. Light to get back, but he was just so tired.

He was already lying down and he was plugged into a power source, so his core was humming contentedly. He didn't even try to fight it when he began to nod off.


	2. Uncertainty

_The Turing test mentioned last chapter is a test given to machines to gauge how humanlike they are. It's strongly implied in the games that the robots in Mega Man are well past the point of the Uncanny Valley: they've crossed it and are visually nearly identical to normal humans. After all, Rock had to be told that that robot of Dr. Light was a robot. To make something that could trick not just another robot master, but also humans that would see it on news reports, you have to be able to make it look alive. Not just lifelike. Though I'd argue that Rock should have scanned the "Dr. Light". _

_ We also tried to explain why some of these RMs (/coughsplashwoman) were so damn easy to kill._

_ You can also start to see in this chapter some of the more xenofictitious elements coming up. Hierarchical issues, that sort of thing._

_ Also: I tend to like breaking the cutie, if only to build them up from that/make them stronger. It's no fun if it's purely destructive, but if it prompts character growth? _

* * *

><p>"It worked! He didn't spot <em>or <em>fix the vulnerability!" Roll was exclaiming. "We should make them _all _weak to Rock's buster next time."

"Perhaps, Roll, but I think Wily would realize something was wrong when they all went down twice as fast," Dr. Light reminded her, checking over Splashwoman again. He hadn't wanted to give one of his creations weaker defenses than normal, especially when working underwater was so hazardous for a robot master, but Roll had been worried for her first younger sister. The mega buster's damage was easy to fix, and so Splashwoman had been the first to be brought home, mostly safe and perfectly sound.

Rock thought that the sounds of family were one of the best things to wake to. Only that made him think of Blues. Made him wonder how he felt, waking up alone every morning, with no one nearby to make sure you were okay. He knew that they were family, knew that Rock was his brother and Roll his sister, but he never came here. Dr. Light never brought it up, though now that he was thinking about it…he looked so sad when he found out that Blues was alive, but keeping his distance. Not sad that Blues was alive, but sad about something else, somehow. Rock never questioned it. Now he was thinking that if he had, Dr. Light might have told him.

"Dr. Light?" Rock propped himself up on his elbows, then pushed himself into a sitting position, but still slumped a bit. He was calmer, not in shock any more, but now he just felt _sad._

"Rock!" Roll cried, glad he was okay. She'd checked him over, but still.

"We thought it best to let you sleep," Dr. Light explained, walking over slowly compared to Roll. "How are you, Rock?"

Rock scooted forward on the examination table, more to stall than to get comfortable. He was looking down at his lap, frowning. "Dr. Light…why…" He wanted to ask Blues this question just as badly. He stole a glance up at Dr. Light. "Why didn't you tell me? About Blues?" Rock trembled a little. Maybe he wasn't as calm as he'd thought.

Dr. Light seemed shocked, alarmed. "Is... is there a reason you're finally asking me this?"

"Dr. Wily said…and then Blues _hit _him…" Rock trailed off, blinking up at Dr. Light. "Why…all this time…why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Blues _hit _him?" Dr. Light was surprised. "Actual physical violence? Was he alright?" It was only after he said that that Dr. Light realized he didn't know who he was asking about.

Rock paused, hesitated, before deciding to answer the question both ways. "He…he hit him hard, but not harder than a human could." It was a glancing blow by human terms. Dr. Wily was alright. "But Blues was…I've never seen him actually angry…before…" Rock trailed off again. Blues hadn't addressed Rock at all during the entire exchange. Hadn't answered any of his questions. Wily was the one that had to affirm it.

"And Blues was alright?" Yes, Dr. Light realized, that was the one he was more concerned about. The robot he'd created, the rogue that had tried to escape, that had now violated the three laws. Blues just fulfilled his worst fears by attacking a human, but it was him he was worried about, not Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily was frankly like a cockroach: Dr. Light was honestly beginning to doubt that he would ever die, ever stop.

Rock's brow furrowed, a little confused. But he tried to answer Dr. Light's question again, with more data this time. "He was really angry, but Dr. Wily started laughing. He slapped him again, not as hard, but aside from being _furious…_" He was the same, otherwise. "He…he left when Wily did." Probably right after, once he was certain Rock was safe.

"So he was alright." Dr. Light let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. Blues' version of the three laws is very different from yours. It was a draft, and... I was rather alarmed when I wrote it. As in Asimov's stories, it's designed not to try to prevent a robot from violating the laws, since it's rather hard to do that reliably when the robot was intelligent," he glanced at Roll: she knew what he was talking about, "but... shut them down," kill them, "if they violated the laws. Blues originally had a solar power source: when he violated one of the laws, it shut him down. Now that Wily has given him a fusion generator..." Dr. Light was worried. "I've offered, but he won't allow me to work on him. It may be too late: the program I wrote was designed to become part of all his programs, not be easy to remove. If even Dr. Wily couldn't remove it..." Then Dr. Light's only advantage would be a fading memory of exactly how he'd made it do what it did.

Rock almost flinched. Shut him down…Wily said that Dr. Light watched as Blues died. Was that true, then? What could he have done, what was so bad that he had to be killed over it? Blues wasn't a bad person even if he didn't like letting others in. That didn't make him bad, so why?

That was why Blues won't come home, then? It wouldn't be right to even try to ask him, if that was the case. If Blues didn't want Dr. Light to touch him, then…

"Before that point he was... he was written to create a master program that I could then alter to create other robot masters, like you. In a sense, he's as much your father as I am." Both of them had written some of the code that made up Rock. "He tried to control things that he had no right to. He ignored or disregarded orders that were overruled by his primary objective. He, well, I'm sure you know more about his tactics these days than I do. Back then, he never used violence, but since nothing I could do would keep him out of our systems, he may have... done some tampering that ruined people. Including someone who had embezzled quite a lot of money from Light Robotics and intended to compete with us using a stolen copy of Blues' design."

If he was taking matters into his own hands, relying on his own judgment rather than the human social system, the justice system…it was no wonder Dr. Light installed the three laws on him. However…

Rock tilted his head again, "But if you did that, and his objective was…didn't they clash?" Didn't they disagree, pull him into two directions at once? How had Dr. Light avoided that? If he hadn't…that sounded _painful._

"They did. Because I accidently programmed him to take over the world. I hoped that the laws would override that, but unfortunately his personality was already well-established." Such a strong will, such a terrifyingly sharp mind and strong will. Blues had been fond of him, and Dr. Light knew that was why he hadn't been removed from the playing field long before he realized what was going on, as a potential obstacle. He remembered how very _furious _Blues had been when he realized what was happening to him, that an entity designed to control all was being controlled. He was certain that, first law or no first law, the only reason something hadn't happened to him, something more permanent than his brief kidnappings and imprisonments, was because Blues was choosing not to ruin him. Dr. Light hoped there might be some residual affection, that this was the reason.

He hoped that Blues knew he was sorry, that his pleading to be permitted to at least try to fix it was sincere.

Rock looked…upset didn't even begin to cover it. Despite what Dr. Light was saying, Rock was certain that, "Blues isn't a bad person…" Even before finding out about this, he was still someone Rock cared about, counted in Rock's close circle. But finding all this out certainly explained a lot. The idea that his brother might be in pain, might be driven into agony even over relatively simple decisions...to hide it, had he turned off some emotional displays? Was that why he was always so straight-faced?

"No," Dr. Light agreed, remembering afternoons and music playing in the background. "No, he isn't. But to control other people, to control and manipulate everything around him to accomplish his goals, is the fundamental nature of his mind. And he cannot tolerate limits on his power or authority. Nor any higher power over him. When I wrote his programs, I didn't think that he would become sentient, that he would be able to understand things that weren't in his programming. That he would see humans as one more thing to control, governments as 'improper masters...'" He shook his head. "He was built to... look after things. Evaluate and organize resources. He was not an evil person, but he sees other people as tools and resources. That is how his mind works." Inferior robots requiring control, for their own good.

Rock nodded, that made sense to him. Of course, his systems were set up to accept direction from a superior unit, if that unit was looking to help him. It was natural to accept Blues' help when he did need to learn to fight, and quickly.

"I imagine that is why he stopped working with Wily after the third war, even though their goals are compatible." And Blues had clearly been able to manipulate Wily, if Wily had been _surprised_ that Blues had betrayed him by freeing Kalinka Cossack after how he'd blatantly ruined all Wily's plans except escape in the third war.

"He couldn't stand even pretending to take orders, not anymore." And his personality would only grow stronger, his priorities more entrenched, over time.

"He's…hurting a lot, isn't he?" Created to do something, programmed to make that his driving force, then having his creator_, his father,_ install something that would seep into every crevice of his being, every line of coding, and undermine that objective. Install laws that would hinder him at every turn. Every single action, checked and double-checked. Warnings flashing across his viewer, painful reminders of those chains. Proceeding would cause physical pain. Pushing further would cause a debilitating headache, pains in his power core, pains in his processor. Did Blues have to live like that every day? Or did he have some good days, too? Days where it didn't hurt as much, days where he could enjoy himself? Rock shuddered.

"Yes," Dr. Light admitted. "I was desperate when I programmed it. My only alternative was... something I didn't want to do. I hoped that it would establish itself as a higher priority than his drive to control, that not hurting others would become more important than controlling them, but his preexisting drives fought the laws," instead of yielding primacy.

Rock shifted, letting his legs dangle over the edge of the table. He was too short to reach the ground. "I wish…that Blues would have told me," he said finally. He wished that Blues was comfortable enough to at least tell Rock he was his brother. Family was important.

"...Told you what?" Dr. Light wondered. "What made him agree to work with Dr. Wily, as long as he believed Wily could fix him? Why he was in the lab, deactivated for Dr. Wily to find? That he was just using you? Rock, I don't think... Yes, he uses people, but he's capable of genuinely caring for them. I am sure of that. He probably just didn't want to make you sad," when Rock didn't have to know.

"I…never thought he didn't care," Rock shook his head, none of Dr. Light's points were what was really upsetting to him. Well, no, that wasn't true. They _were_ upsetting, but he wasn't upset that Blues hadn't divulged that. Rock learned that when people kept secrets, it was usually for a reason, and Blues always had a good reason for everything. "He was using me, but that's what the superior unit _does."_ He'd have felt unloved if he _wasn't_ used. He wanted to be useful.

Dr. Light was surprised. "You've seen him as the superior unit? Despite his... erratic behavior? Well, I suppose he was the one that saved us, when you met him the first time." Without him, they would have crashed, and then he'd helped Rock defeat Gamma.

"He…in the end, he's done nothing but help." Even if that help was less than welcome or seemed unsavory to the humans. Last he'd heard, Kalinka was still upset. But Blues taking her hostage kept her safe, and that was more important in the end. "I…I thought he was a Wilybot, but even Forte's not a bad person," even if they fight every time they meet, "and he's been helping me this entire time…" This entire time, expending so much time and energy and never told Rock why, never told Rock they were related.

"You thought he was a Wilybot? Oh, yes, at first." They'd called him Breakman, hadn't they?

Rock actually flushed. He shook his head and looked down to his lap, this time sheepishly. "No…I thought…I thought he was a Wilybot until Dr. Wily said that…until Dr. Wily called him my _brother."_

Dr. Light hugged him. "And Blues? How did he react?" Did Blues consider Rock family or just the next most superior model? Did he resent him at all, or consider him a replacement?

Rock rested his forehead against Dr. Light's shoulder. His sensory arrays weren't as sensitive as a human's, or so he was told, but he could still feel it. It still reassured him. "He hit Wily right after he said that. He—he didn't say anything to me." Didn't answer any questions, didn't even look back at him. "He was…I've never seen him so _angry."_ Rock repeated it numbly: it'd been scary. Even if none of that was directed at him, it was still scary.

"Oh, Rock." Wait, hitting Wily... This had just happened, hadn't it? _That_ was why Rock was so upset. "I'm so sorry." He held the boy.

Rock shuddered again, harder this time, almost like a sob. He hugged Dr. Light back. He was unable to voice his main fear, as though by admitting it, it'd solidify into something real and terrifying. Robots and robot masters were designed to work under a superior unit. They were programmed to be of help; Roll's helper robots were so, so sad if you didn't let them clean. Rock was to Blues what Roll's robots were to her. If Blues had judged him and found him wanting…

He sobbed for real this time.


	3. Research

_Somehow, this story's chapters were much easier to name than the the ones for Recovery. It takes me forever to name one, but for these, they were all named in about twenty minutes' time. I wish it'd been the other way around: we have like four or five times the amount of chapters for Recovery than for this lmao.  
><em>

_I believe I mentioned previously that this story isn't an interpretation of what's going on in canon. Laryna and I sort of took this basic situation in the game, added some foreign elements for fun, decided on the attitude of the characters, then sort of set it off to see how it'd develop. _

_ Plus, Kalinka as a fangirl amused me. Though my "official" stance on this series (and I consider Classic and X (and possibly Zero, if I read more on it) to be one series, one timeline) is that there is no romance. Classic is aimed at little kids and from what I've seen of X, well, it's sort of hinted at, but it's not really the focus, so forget it as a theme. Though if you like a pairing, more power to you. I have several of my own, but in other fandoms._

_ One thing I hate in fics is if the summary makes it sound like one thing, but the author's fixation on a pairing turns it into a romance/smutfest and there's no warning. Because if it's not in the summary, I'm probably not there to read about it. _

_ Anyway, this doesn't turn into a romance, so the summary still stands~_

* * *

><p>Roll had an announcement for them over breakfast the next morning. Well, an announcement for Dr. Light, an order for Rock. Or more like, notice that plans had been made for him and that he'd be very busy the next few days. It'd been a while, so she wanted to go see Kalinka, and Rock was coming with. It'd be fun, he hadn't seen Ringman and the others for a while, either. It'd be a good social call for both of them.<p>

She kept it to herself, but it'd be good for Rock emotionally, too.

Rock just smiled, though not as widely as usual, and said it sounded fun. He meant it, even if he was a bit off this morning.

Once they'd teleported there, Roll took him aside. "Kalinka's been trying to find out about Blues ever since he saved her." Roll didn't mention the time he'd held his buster to Kalinka's head to use her as a hostage. Kalinka understood why he'd done that, especially after she'd seen Roll get shot right in front of her, but it had still been one more trauma for the list. "That's actually how I found out that Blues and Protoman were the same person. I mean, he never wore armor or a coat like that, much less sunglasses, when he was Protoman." Since he hadn't been built as a warbot. "Come on, I'll ask her to show you what we've pulled together." She tugged him to the rather large and deliberately intimidating (the house had been rebuilt as a semi-fortress after Skullman's attack) entrance.

Rock perked up at that: he did want to know more about Blues. Not just that, but the origin of sentient robots was pertinent to him as well. It was something he wanted to look into not just as Blues' brother, but as a robot master. How had it been for Blues in those first months, those first years? Without any other robot masters around, had he been lonely, or was he able to forge strong bonds with Dr. Light and other humans?

Rock's current perception of Blues wouldn't get so close to anyone, but people got that way for a reason. You don't become wary of a flame by never getting burned.

Dr. Cossack's home was always impressive. It was a completely different architectural style from Dr. Light's home; it was more castle-like with gothic architecture. Grand arches and high ceilings. Arches were very structurally sound, too.

It was a little dark in places though, and Rock thought it'd make a good haunted house around Halloween. Not that he would ever tell the Cossacks that.

It wouldn't be funny, given Skullman's design. And the nature of Dr. Cossack's nightmares.

Rock didn't want to upset Dr. Cossack, either, especially after all the help he'd given them. He liked Dr. Cossack and Kalinka, liked the seven robot masters that lived here. "I'm surprised Kalinka never asked me anything," since he was the one that seemed to see Blues the most often, sparse as even that was.

"Because she's embarrassed about it, and her brothers really don't approve." _Really _really, after what Blues had done during the fight with the poor copy of Rock Wily made.

Embarrassed? But then, "Should we be asking her about it if it makes her uncomfortable?" He didn't want to make Kalinka feel bad! Especially if it'd get her in trouble with her brothers. Even if he disagreed with their opinion of Blues, he understood why they were upset. Kalinka was a squishy human, after all. No one wanted her to get hurt.

"It makes her uncomfortable, but she also wants to network about it. It's a female thing," Roll explained. "Don't worry," your little head, "about it."

Rock blinked, but he just nodded. If it'd make Kalinka happy, he'd try and answer her questions, even if he didn't think he had much more insight into Blues than anyone else. Different memories, definitely, but understanding? He didn't think so.

He hadn't even known. His brother, like Iceman and proud Elecman, and _hurting_ and he hadn't even known.

It made him feel like he'd failed somehow by missing what was right in front of him.

Like he'd completely missed that Blues was his brother, but at least it was pretty clear that Blues hadn't wanted him to know.

That didn't make him feel any less stupid for missing it, though. He'd thought he was the oldest robot master: why hadn't he thought it was odd that he read Blues as an older and wiser model? Felt he was connected to Dr. Light somehow and the days when Rock had been new and the world had been peaceful?

Had he recognized Blues in his programming?

That was possible, but shouldn't he have seen the pattern, noticed it in his logs? Roll hadn't been surprised: she thought he already knew, the same as Dr. Light. So why didn't he?

Blues hadn't wanted him to know, Rock knew, and thought that might be why. "I think I need to talk to Dr. Light, when we get home." It wasn't that urgent. He hoped. But if some of Rock's programming was Blues' work, and Blues had been created to control things, then... He had never opened a wireless link with Blues, not with a _Wilybot_, but if his programming had been designed to be obedient to Blues, and Dr. Light hadn't gotten rid of enough of it...

He hoped that wasn't the case. He hoped Blues wouldn't just…take advantage of him like that. Dr. Light hadn't seemed worried about that possibility, but if it could happen…how much of it was really him, then?

The desire to serve superior models was instinctive. All robots had it.

Except Blues, according to Dr. Light. So who had made that the way robots were? Who had crafted these feelings, these instincts, when Dr. Light didn't seem to quite understand how Rock felt?

Dr. Light said that Blues had a hand in his programming, in all of their programming. Had he done this, then? Made it so that later models would fall below him, would fulfill his mastering requirement? Did he look at Rock and only see that the instinctive programming was working? And that was all it was, nothing more?

Rock hadn't realized until now the nature of the warm feeling he had when he passed Blues' tests, when Blues helped him. When Blues approved of him. When Wily had said brother, when Dr. Light had confirmed that Blues was his older brother was when he had really _felt _it. Love, the same kind of love he had for Dr. Light, and Roll sometimes, when she looked after him. It was a different kind of love from when he looked after her and saved his younger brothers. He just, he hoped that Blues felt the same way, because otherwise it was _wrong_, and why would Blues make them hate the way he'd intended to someday treat them?

That, at least, was reassuring. The one reassuring thing his thoughts had been able to provide him with. Blues was hard to read and hated being questioned; he wouldn't take to Rock's queries well, he just knew it. But he wanted _answers_, he needed to know. Blues probably needed some space after how angry Dr. Wily made him. And smacking him, the three laws programming was probably up in arms after that. Was that why Wily wasn't indignant at Blues for slapping him, because he already knew the cost he had to pay to assert himself?

Rock never wanted to stand against any humans (except Wily), he never disagreed with Dr. Light. He couldn't imagine what it must be like, to have his personality rubbing the wrong way against his three laws programming. Having them constantly at war, neither ceding to the other. All day, every day. Forever.

If Dr. Light hadn't realized what Blues was planning—and obviously not all of it, or he would have scrubbed their programming better, or started over from the beginning—then Rock might have been at his right hand.

_ Had _Blues helped Dr. Light work on him once the programming was done? Had Rock, and maybe Roll as well, felt that mind before they woke up and started to form clear memories?

Rock would have to focus, and shut down external input, to try to locate logs that old, that buried with other compressed, not-really-relevant data.

He couldn't do that now, but he made a note of it in his logs to do so when he got some quiet time, some time alone. Dr. Wily said that Protoman died once already: if Dr. Light thought Blues was truly dead and gone, would he have had reason to scrub their programming?

Still, if he suspected anything, he'd have done what he could after Blues resurfaced during the third war.

Dr. Light's reaction to Blues' appearance had always been between fear and hope: Rock should have known that something was going on when Elecman told him he was sure Dr. Light had known the strange definitely-not-a-human that had just shown up and dismembered Rock's six oldest younger brothers to keep them from getting involved in a battle.

He should have known that something was up when Dr. Light saw Blues on the view screen on the asteroid and responded with recognition, with shock and relief. And some sorrow. He should have known after Blues left, when Rock recounted what happened back to Dr. Light and Dr. Light looked so _sad._ So full of grief. He was grieving and Rock only just now realized it.

He should have figured this out before. He _should _have. He felt like he'd failed his family.

Fortunately, Kalinka's cry of delight when she spotted Roll distracted him from those thoughts. "Roll! You're free already?" So soon after a war like this, with her family in trouble? That meant good news, that everyone was alright.

Rock perked up; he was always happy to say hi to Kalinka, even if she and Roll did tend to get excited over the strangest things. It made Roll happy though, and Kalinka too, and that made Rock happy. It was strange, how happiness seemed infectious. It was a good feeling.

Roll tugged Kalinka aside a bit, and then there was a lot of whispering. He turned his hearing down in order not to hear it.

He also averted his eye contact. Looking at them wouldn't help him hear or anything, but he knew that to humans, eye contact meant full attention. So to give someone else a semblance of privacy, it was not only considered polite to back away until they couldn't be heard, but also to look away or turn away in some manner.

It didn't really apply to robot masters, but humans relied heavily on body language and he didn't want to be rude, especially when Roll was asking Kalinka for a favor on his behalf.

Kalinka looked surprised when he chanced a glance over, but not reluctant. Humans couldn't turn off facial control, so they could only practice and learn to guard their reactions. Kalinka had no need to hide her feelings, so whatever she was thinking was displayed fairly clearly across her face.

Rock actually preferred it that way: people shouldn't have to hide who they are.

Kalinka also seemed a bit surprised—had absolutely everyone thought he already knew? That made Rock feel bad, it just reinforced that he should have been able to figure it out. Wily shouldn't have had to spell it out for him. At least Kalinka wasn't laughing.

"Alright, you can see the scrapbook, but you have to promise not to tell anyone." Kalinka was blushing now.

Rock nodded. He was grateful she was letting him see even though it did embarrass her a bit. "Thank you, Kalinka." He wouldn't tell: he didn't want her brothers to become upset with her.

"When I tried to do research online, all sorts of things were blocked." Kalinka was Dr. Cossack's daughter, she could tell when someone was tampering with a search engine. "So I had to look up old newspapers and magazines," she told him, reaching under her desk and pulling out a large binder, the type used for photo albums.

That…was a bit sad, that Blues didn't want them to know who he was. Even Kalinka. Though to a robot master, keeping a human away from certain information was child's play. A human hacker's attempts were so feeble, they may as well knock on the door and politely ask for permission to get in.

"So you had to go to the library, then?" That was the best place to find hard copies of archival information. They had copiers, too. That libraries were still around seemed silly at first, but it made sense. It was too easy for someone to go in and change what was on a network.

Especially someone like Blues.

She spread the book open on her bed, and Rock saw a magazine cover with a metal head and the title, "The Future of Robotics?"

Rock recognized the structure, even if it wasn't an exact mirror of his own. That had to be Blues, but it was still…Elec and the others had more differences from Rock and Roll. Blues was…he was literally an earlier model in their line? "I…didn't know that he was in magazines." That he was such big news. Though Rock and Roll had had photos taken of them too, hadn't they? Of course the first would be a big deal, especially if they weren't expecting him to be sentient. Wily said they weren't, that he'd been a surprise.

"He was." Kalinka turned the page to show a copy of the article. "Did you know that it was Dr. Wily that submitted the funding proposal for the first robot masters? Dr. Light submitted one for networking a huge amount of non-sentient computers instead of building a few intelligent ones into mobile bodies, but somehow Dr. Light got the funding for Dr. Wily's project. Dr. Wily was _furious_."

"Is that why they're not friends anymore?" Rock only needed to glance at the article to commit it to memory, to read it. A lot of people were expecting Blues to be only a minor advancement, they didn't think this new AI setup would be that much better than what they'd already had.

Blues blew everyone else, all other competitors, clean out of the water.

"But how did Dr. Light end up with the funding if it was Dr. Wily's idea?"

"It doesn't say anywhere. And I looked at the microfiche records of old newspapers, too." At archival libraries in Japan and America. "But Dr. Wily did get credit for designing the standard structure for robot masters, and the movement programming and so on. Of course, it's effectively open source now," because no one really had to pay royalties to a madman trying to take over the world. "The idea of networking robot masters to lesser robots was Dr. Light's though. Some people speculated that it was because he was better able to write the software for that, given his proposal, even though Dr. Wily had already done a lot of the physical design work." The skeletal (or rather, unadorned) metal robot on the cover had been Dr. Wily's demonstration model: he'd solved the walking problem and managed to make quite a few other movements seem natural.

"Blues would have cleaned up the programming, too, to make it more efficient," Rock murmured that with a slight nod. His base programming was clean and precise. Occasionally, he had to clean up something new that Dr. Light installed to make it run more smoothly, to make it fit better with the rest of the coding. But Rock never had to outright reprogram anything Dr. Light gave him. He was very, very good at understanding what needed to be done. "So both doctors worked a lot on us," On robot masters, "But Dr. Wily isn't really given any credit…" That was a reason for him to revolt the way he had been. "And Dr. Light was given all of it," Because, to humanity, programming the AI, creating that mind, was far, far more impressive.

"He was supposed to be a user interface, too, so, um." 'They made him look pretty,' was what Kalinka didn't say, although she lingered on another magazine cover, one with a good picture. "He looks just like this, under those glasses. Except there are bags under his eyes, like we get when we're tired. I don't know why." He wouldn't have those blood vessels.

"That…" Rock trailed off. He was going to say that that was probably because of his condition, a result of the massive disagreement in his programming. Instead, Rock said, "It's kind of funny. I…I look a lot like him, don't I?" Younger, darker hair, but still. Looking at Blues that way, with no shades, no helmet…Rock really looked just like him.

"There's a resemblance," Kalinka agreed, "But you're definitely not an exact copy." Humans noticed a lot of facial detail.

Also, Rock was cute. Blues was hot. There was a major distinction there.

Rock nodded: if Kalinka thought so, he'd believe her. She was a better judge of it. "I've heard people say that Roll and I look like siblings," Which was…they were siblings, so why wouldn't they? "So maybe Dr. Light made us to look like Blues' siblings, too?" Like a family. Even if it hadn't turned out the way Dr. Light hoped.

"I think so," Kalinka agreed. "Your construction was announced, and some preliminary design pictures were released, before Blues' last appearance."

It was Roll that turned the page eagerly to show Rock the computer rendering and sketches that were their equivalent of baby photos.

Rock leaned down to see. So Blues was still around when they were first conceived? Well, Dr. Light did say that Blues was responsible for some of their coding. The renders and sketches were mostly of their underlying structures, of their various structural layers. There were some artists' renderings of their finished design, of what they'd look like, but not as much. The sketches looked more…real than the 3-D renders, too. That technology looked very…Dr. Light called it the uncanny valley, explained that a lot of their own movement programming was to prevent them from falling into it. At first glance, especially in passing, Rock and Roll both looked like normal children. But their skin was too pale, too flawless. If you stared hard enough at their eyes, you could see the lenses focusing. If you gripped them hard enough, or if someone tried to strike them, they'd hurt their hand due to their metal frames. Rock never had the chance to see any of these images before, though. It was both fascinating and a little strange.


	4. Cache

_Yes, last chapter did cut off suddenly. I had to cut this scene in two because of the way some of the other chapters cut. If I'd left this scene whole, yes, it'd have been a gloriously long chapter, but then another one would have been maybe a thousand words or so and that's too short. We didn't write this thing with chapters in mind (and maybe we should have), so cutting it was a bit difficult. _

_ And now that it's all written, I'm reading it and thinking that Rock should have been a bit more assertive. Next time._

* * *

><p>Rock was sure Dr. Light would have shown him, had he asked to see, but Rock never thought of it. "And he…disappeared shortly after this?" He almost said died, but Rock wasn't certain he actually had, and he didn't want to upset Kalinka with maybes and rumors.<p>

"Not very long. And nothing says _why_. First there was the excitement when you were turned on, and the others were sent out to start working, and then Dr. Wily." So the papers had been busy with more exciting robot news. "It's strange, though. It would have made sense for him to be sent instead of you, when everyone thought there was just something wrong with your programming, but Roll said that he was already gone by then." Kalinka looked at Roll, who nodded. "It said that he was developed not to just program robots to do their tasks, but to analyze various tasks to create strategy sets for the robot masters that would handle those specific jobs. All of the first generation robot masters had initial programs generated by him." A program set for running a power plant, for running a household and interacting with guests, for working in the lab... "So he could have spotted any changes." And they would have found out faster than Dr. Wily was behind it.

"No, Blues wasn't around at all when we were activated," He was in the lab still, no doubt. Shut down. So had Wily taken him when he took Elec and the others? "He…" Rock trailed off, hesitating. "The first time I ever saw him was during the third war. I had no idea who he was."

Kalinka nodded: she knew _that_, of course. It was practically common knowledge. "You look much more like a younger version of Blues in the initial design renders than the finished model." She wondered why. "It says that you were created as a support unit, since you wouldn't actually be in charge of organizing the lab. So you're not as direct a copy of his programming as the others, but you were supposed to work with him as well as Dr. Light," or so she presumed.

A support unit…yes, that was in line with his functions. "I can't generate a field like the others, I'm not built to oversee multiple units like that," Rock agreed. If Blues intended for Rock to work for him…it made him feel a little bit better. "I'm…not the same sort of robot master as Elec or even Roll." He had Rush: that was the only unit he had control over. "He…acted as the superior unit, always." Behaved toward Rock the way Elec did toward his underlings, guided and corrected him, even if most of it (almost all of it) was "tough love".

"No one's made any more like you, except Forte." Roll frowned. "I don't know if Copy-Rock was or not. I mean, he acted more like a robot master." The copy had been exact except for the removal of a few safety features and the addition of Dr. Wily's evil chip, but instead of turning out like Rock he'd decided to kill humans and create a world for robot masters. That was... very different from the older brother she knew. Blues, she barely knew.

The evil chip mostly just overrode the three laws and made them more willing to use violence. It overrode the safety features Dr. Light installed: did that include mental safety features as well as just ones to make sure Rock didn't overtax his systems?

If Blues had his way, would Roll's brother have ended up more like Copy-Rock?

Roll didn't want to think that way, but now that it occurred to her...

"I…I'm not sure what Wily did to his programming, to make him act that way," Rock frowned. Bypassed a lot of logic, no doubt. "But if he could, Copy would have hooked into others to persuade them, I think. It was like if Blues didn't care about other people, if he didn't care about what we thought and just moved forward."

Actually, that sounded like Blues to Roll, but she wasn't going to say that in front of these two, not when Kalinka still wanted to think the best of him after everything he'd done and Rock had admitted he thought of him as a superior model.

_Rock_ did. Her brother did, a not-quite-fellow-robot-master but definitely not a regular robot either did. _Blues_. Who had goaded Forte into attacking Rock and said something about Rock needing to be strong before just vanishing. Like he always did.

"It was sad, I think that…I think that waking up the way he was, with his memories not his own, having no place in the world…I think that if he'd had something good when he woke up, he wouldn't have thought that everything was so bad." In the end, the Copy acknowledged that there was something good in life, even if it wasn't his to live for. It still made Rock really sad to think about: the Copy shouldn't have had to die for the rest of them.

Why had Blues been so mean? The Copy had looked to him, looked so desperate, pleading for Blues to tell him it wasn't true, and Blues had just stood there, face stone and said 'yes'. He was a copy. A single, cold word, and that had devastated him more than being rejected by any of the others, by all their other brothers put together.

When Blues rejected him was when he'd _screamed_.

The Copy had all of Rock's memories at that point, knew all of Rock's feelings. The fear that Blues may reject him made Rock break down the night before, sobbing in Dr. Light's arms. The Copy was evidence enough of the relationship her two older brothers had, if she'd thought about it that way. The Copy's pain was Rock's pain. Rock even said that he knew the Copy would take such measures at the end, die for the sake of his family, because Rock knew that _he'd do the same thing._

The Copy had been flatly rejected by Blues, then he'd accidently shot Roll, which had almost killed her without armor, their brothers had sworn they'd kill him, and he'd known that Dr. Light was going to be in _so _much trouble if Rock's name wasn't cleared, and if even a Copy of Rock had it in him to act this way?

What did Shadowman think would happen when he rescued him? Had he even tried to keep him imprisoned until he calmed down? It wouldn't have worked. That hadn't been her brother, but it had been a version of her brother, one with no regard for his own safety. Or life, in the end.

It was infuriating that Wily would bring a robot master into the world to be so miserable, so rejected, that he had no other alternative but to self-destruct. It was infuriating that Blues stood by and let it happen when he certainly had enough weight with the Copy to prevent it.

But if he'd accepted the Copy, what would that have meant for Rock?

Or for Blues, when he let no one close, to have a support unit that would need constant reassurance that he was wanted so badly?

It wouldn't have worked, but it made it no less sad. No less wrong.

They had a _responsibility_ as robot masters. They'd had a _responsibility_. Roll had gotten up off of what might have been her deathbed to tell her brothers not to hate him, it wasn't his fault. Shadowman had revealed himself and rescued him, instead of taking advantage of all the confusion to do whatever Wily had sent him to do. The Cossacks had protected him, in Skullman's memory, when her brothers attacked him. Blues had just... He could have done something! Something _besides_ taking Kalinka hostage and saying he 'couldn't guarantee her safety' if others got involved in the fight between Rock and the copy, which was true, really. Roll had nearly died, and she'd just been unarmored, not human.

Dr. Light said that Blues viewed other people, human and robot masters alike, as resources to be used or saved. Dr. Light said he'd programmed Blues to think that way, before he knew that Blues would be sentient, before he realized that Blues would be applying that mindset to everything. So in whatever equation Blues was running, was the Copy's death really that much less costly than any other possible outcome? Were they all currency to him, waiting to be cashed in at the most opportune moment?

If that was the case, Rock would be _devastated_, far more than the Copy had been.

Especially since the only use Blues seemed to have for Rock was as a fighter, when Rock hated fighting.

"What else have you found?" Rock asked, turning the page again. It was calming to finally be able to find out some things, to finally be able to understand.

"Well, one of the Wilybots gave me this." Roll turned to one of the later pages. One of her admirers had given her a copy of a photo of the 'ghost.' Back there, in the shadows, was probably-Protoman. Unless it was one of the Darkmen, but they didn't whistle. "The Wilybots tell ghost stories about him."

"Ghost stories?" Rock seemed a little surprised. Did the Wilybots know more? Well, if Wily thought Rock already knew, it only followed that his 'bots would know, too. Had even Forte known? All these years, and he _never_ taunted Rock about it? How could that be?

"A mysterious red robot, people hearing whistling out of nowhere in their stages, someone seeing the bloody dead body of a blonde robot in red armor in Wily's lab," Napalm Man had panicked and thought it was her, before being told by a furious Wily to get out.

"They think he's still dead?" Rock was really surprised this time. The Wilybots should know about Wily working on him at the very least. And a ghost? Of a robot master? How did that even work?

"They think he's _mysterious_," Roll waved her fingers in the air in an 'ooooh, scary story,' way.

"Wait, what do you mean, 'still dead'?" Kalinka tilted her head, focusing on Rock.

He hesitated for a moment, sensing that he'd slipped. "Well, it was just something Wily said, at the end. But he worked on Blues, so he isn't dead. I guess he just doesn't tell his bots anything?" Rock ended that sentence on a hopeful note. He wasn't even sure what he thought of what Wily said, whether all of it was true, and it's not like Blues confirmed or dismissed Wily's claims.

"Dr. Light said that Blues got put in storage because the three laws activated and shut down his solar power," Roll told Kalinka, after a moment thinking of the least bad way to say it. One that didn't imply that, well, being a manipulative bastard who threatened little girls was Blues' default state.

Kalinka's brow furrowed, but Rock was looking _really_ sad now, down to the ground. Dr. Light put Blues into storage? Like her father had to Skullman? Because he _broke_ the three laws? So he was deactivated when Rock and Roll were born…

"It is weird that Dr. Wily hasn't said anything about that," when he'd had her father kidnapped when... Skullman... Kalinka would have thought that he'd shout it from the rooftops if Dr. Light was equally a hypocrite, except, "He probably assumes everyone knows. My father said that Dr. Wily is brilliant, and that it can be hard for people like that to really understand that other people aren't as smart as them and don't know things they think are basic. So that's part of why he yelled at my brothers all the time, he thought they were deliberately being difficult even when they weren't."

"They were newbuilt at the time, too, so there was a lot they wouldn't have known or understood," Rock nodded. Dr. Light was very patient with him and Roll and explained everything to them, answered all their questions. Was Dr. Wily's policy to just yell at his bots until they stopped asking? They must have relied on each other to learn, relied on the older models to teach the newer. Rock and Roll were the oldest, or so they thought at the time, so there was no one else to turn to.

He wondered what it would have been like, had Blues been around then. What they would have learned. How life would have been different.

He wondered if it kept Dr. Light up at night, sometimes. The regret, the worry, the grief.  
>He tried to imagine what would have happened if Dr. Light hadn't put the three laws in place, and stopped, because he didn't want to imagine it; he'd seen some of it. He would have tried to take over the world, since that was what Blues would have wanted. That was what the copy had done, even without a master's orders. Or were they there, hidden in his programming? Kept in check by the laws, Dr. Light and his family?<p>

He didn't want to hurt anyone, he never did, but he knew very well that he would. For his family.

The Three Laws were there to protect robots as much as to protect humans. The Copy had no reason to decide that all of humanity had to be punished, even if he was tired of Dr. Wily's schemes. Even if he was just as sick of it as Rock. It was true: to protect his family, to make Blues happy, to make the fighting _stop_, he'd have done it. He really would have. It made him shiver.

The whole thing had been so sad, and now that more of his younger siblings had almost been killed, but at least they'd be spared now. No one would believe that they'd willingly gone to work for Dr. Wily because it was _Dr. Wily._

He leaned over the book again, wanting to find something happier to focus on. "How long did it take you to get all of this, Kalinka?" It was impressive, there was a lot of information in there. "And how did you find out who he was?" If Roll found out from Kalinka, then who told Kalinka?

Kalinka turned the page back to the magazine cover with Blues (or Protoman's) face on it. "When he took me from Dr. Wily's castle, I got a good look at his face. So, I went looking for robots that he might possibly be, since Dr. Wily didn't build him and no one else is that good except for Dr. Light. Even if he was modified later by Dr. Wily."

What? "How did you know he wasn't a Wilybot?"

"Shadowman said so. He was the one that guarded me and when Blues came, he said that he was a traitor and Dr. Wily was a fool to trust him, after what he'd done last time. He implied that Blues was like my brothers, not a real Wilybot." That real Wilybots weren't traitors like, in hindsight, Lightbots. She'd heard about how Ice and Elec had pretended to join Wily's side and then sabotaged him to help Rock during the second war.

Shadowman and Blues _really_ didn't get along, especially not after the ordeal with the Copy. So at least some of the Wilybots knew. "I don't get why he wouldn't want us to know." Rock looked dejectedly down at the glossy photo of Blues, as if that would answer his question.

"Because then we might not trust him? Or he'd be less cool and mysterious?" A powerful warbot from out of nowhere that had saved Kalinka Cossack like a knight in shining armor? Roll frowned at herself. She should try to give him the benefit of the doubt, but she kept thinking about how all this could hurt Rock.

Rock frowned, considering it. Wasn't honesty the best way to become trusted? But Blues had always helped Rock, had always watched his back, especially when Rock couldn't or wouldn't look after himself. Weren't actions supposed to be worth more than mere words? But...to keep all this from him intentionally? Or was it more like Blues was trying to keep his distance from Dr. Light?

"Anyway," Roll might have cleared her throat, if she needed to, "This is what we've managed to compile on him. We can't keep it on a computer, or he'd delete it."

Rock nodded, flipping through the book. There were a lot of articles. Photos were fewer in number, but he suspected Kalinka copied every photo she could find. "I wish I could help you find more information, but I think Blues wouldn't let me look anything up," Rock especially. "I only have memory clips, but if you put those on a network…"

Kalinka reached under the bed again and pulled up a video camera, one of the ones with a flip-out screen so it could play back what it had recorded. "Roll put her memories into this."

Rock nodded and took the camera from Kalinka. "Are there any in particular you want, Kalinka?"

"When he brought me to save my father?" Of course. Please? Kalinka clasped her hands at him.

"Use the USB plug, Rock," Roll said, reaching around for the cable. If he tried to send it as a transmission, it might be blocked. And she would be surprised if Blues _wasn't_ monitoring Rock closely. Even if he refused to come himself. He always kept tabs on Rock.

Rock nodded in agreement with Roll. He had various ports on his neck, just below and behind his ears that would open with a touch. He also had a port type in what would be his ear canal. It looked like ear buds when he had them in. Roll thought he always looked cute like that. He plugged in and looked to the camera's small viewscreen as the memory file uploaded. "I have a lot of memories of him, but not a lot of them have a good view," Especially if it was when they were fighting. When they were sparring. Blues was _fast._

"I got a close-up of him once," Roll said. When he'd rescued her from that crane Forte had hung her from. That was the first time she'd met him, although she'd heard from Kalinka that he was handsome. Telling Kalinka about it, Roll had blushed and said that yeah, he was pretty cute.

Then Kalinka had looked at her funny, and when Roll had asked what was wrong, Kalinka had asked if Roll didn't care that he was her brother? Because maybe it didn't mean the same thing (as much) to robot masters.

"Most of my close-ups are of him dressed as Protoman," Rock said. And that visor was completely opaque. His sunglasses were a little more transparent, but not by much. You'd still have to get close. He did get some good looks at him when he was wearing the helmet, though.

"I went through it frame by frame: I have some of the best images saved," Kalinka said. She'd pull them up on the camera after Rock finished uploading his video files.

He had a lot to upload, especially compared to Roll, but it only took him a minute or two. They always stayed on top of their maintenance, of their upkeep. It was possible for robots to have so much excess data, so much fragmented memory, that it would slow them down. Rock defragged and organized his mind during his sleep cycles. He pulled the plug from his port and closed it up while offering the camera back to Kalinka with his other hand. He thought she'd be happy with what she saw in there.

Rock had compressed a lot of his video memories since most of them didn't contain anything really interesting. Or he didn't want to think about them. Most of the fighting only got uncompressed when a war started, but he'd never compressed anything with Blues, even that terrible fight with Forte.

He didn't think there was anything in there that would frighten or upset Kalinka, though. The video could be a bit hard to follow at points when he was dodging and debris was kicking up, but he didn't think it'd make her dizzy or anything. "He shows up every war," To help Rock, give him hints, guide him. It was reassuring.

"I know, Roll told me." About her hero. Even if he never explained himself and such. It was annoying, but apparently that was what boys were like, according to the girls at school, and she had related this to Roll.

Rock was more concerned with the scrapbook than he was with the contents of the video camera, but he looked at the selection of shots that Kalinka singled out. Maybe it was because he saw Blues a lot more often, or because his memory was photographic (and digital), but he didn't quite understand why she had it set up this way. She was happy, that much was evident, and he was glad he could help.

Roll was paying attention to those shots since Kalinka had generally picked ones with better views of his face and expressions.

A thought occurred to Rock then and he actually froze, ceasing all motion save his eyes widening slightly. Now that Rock knew something that Blues never wanted him to, would he stop showing up so often? His more logical side supplied that it shouldn't affect Blues' behavior that extensively, that something like that wouldn't cause him to change his behavioral patterns. That it shouldn't change anything.

Maybe he'd become even more withdrawn instead. That was almost worse.

If he saw him again, he didn't know what to do. Now that he'd realized that this was his brother, he couldn't leave him alone and in pain, but to defeat him and bring him home to be fixed, like the others? His brothers, yes, but they were inferior models. But Blues wasn't.

And Blues didn't have the excuse of being reprogrammed to not want to come home. If Dr. Wily successfully reprogrammed him, Blues would be obedient to him. Dr. Light said he could not tolerate an authority above him, someone giving him orders. No, if Blues could break free of that, then that was Blues himself not wanting to come home.

If he did manage to subdue him and bring him in to be fixed, would Blues hate him then? But his brother was hurting. He, he felt like he at least had to _try_. Try to convince him to come home.

He didn't want to say anything to Roll, though. Not in front of Kalinka, not when they were here to have fun. Maybe he should mention it to Dr. Light when they got back home?

What if Dr. Light forbade him? What could he do then? But, Dr. Light would understand, and they had to try. Dr. Light was worried about him, too.

He'd never _missed _Blues before, but now that he knew he should, he did.

Was this how Kalinka always felt? He doubted Blues made many house calls, if any at all. No, none at all with how angry her brothers were. He…this revelation made him understand how she felt a little bit better. Why she did these things. Human memories faded, robots' did not. Wasn't it painful to only be able to hold onto a fading image?

At least he could hope that he meant something to Blues, even knowing that he'd been programmed to think that they were only things (since he'd been meant to be a thing, and things couldn't understand the difference). If Blues had intended Rock to be his support unit, then he must have wanted one. Then hopefully he valued what could be. But Kalinka? Wishing that Blues would be her boyfriend, like a human? He was sure she knew how unlikely that was, especially after these past few years had gone by.

Kalinka had to know that a robot, even a robot master, wouldn't be able to fulfill that role the way a human could. So even if Blues agreed to it, she had to know that it wouldn't work the way she needed it to. Was that why Blues was staying away, to try to discourage her? Hope she'd find a human boy instead?

That…made a lot of sense, then. It was strange, trying to understand things like this. Human-style romance didn't apply to robot masters. He understood it in theory, but in practice? He couldn't practice it, so he couldn't know.

He knew that it was two people getting together to start a family, but robots with two masters? Wouldn't that be confusing?

Like right now. Dr. Light and Blues.

That in itself was confusing Rock to no end. He didn't know which way to turn.

He knew that Blues probably wanted Rock to forget he'd ever heard that, or at least act like it after that. But if Blues was family, and he was hurting? He couldn't do that. He'd never been able to. What would he have done if the humans hadn't changed their minds and spared his family both times? He didn't want to know, because on some level he did know. And he had the laws.

No, he couldn't just leave this alone. He had to try, he had to do something. It wasn't right for Blues to be hurting. It wasn't right that he had to feel like he had no one to trust, no one to turn to.

So, the question was, how to draw Blues out so Rock could talk to him? He could try fighting Forte, and Ringman got police sightings, and maybe Shadowman might know.

If he reached out, surely Blues would respond. He never failed to appear when Rock needed him. If the fight with Forte got out of hand, Blues would show up for sure, but then people would be in danger. Shadowman might be the best bet, though if he decided he wanted to fulfill Wily's goals instead of help Rock, he'd be in trouble. He'd have to go in armor either way.

Ringman…yes, there were sightings, but with how much Blues teleported around, any lead would go ice cold in just a few hours. It sometimes took Ringman months to track Blues down and Rock kind of suspected that whenever he did manage to find Blues, it was because Blues let him.

But, maybe...

He had an idea, but he had to ask Dr. Light's permission.

Rock didn't know how to take down the firewall himself, for one thing.

It would be dangerous, but... Blues was family.


	5. Discovery

_I'm glad so many people are liking this. This was actually my first time writing anything xenofictitious, so this was fun, but this story is also mostly family style fluff. Franchises that are so underdeveloped in character and story (like this one) are really fun to work in in that there are so many ways to interpret what's going on. I've read some very dark and disturbing takes on MM Classic, and while I do enjoy the occasional dark story, I'd have to be in the right mood to consider writing one. It could happen though. I am pretty terrible._

_ Also, because people are asking: there are ten chapters total, so we're halfway done now._

_ We do not own Rockman, Capcom does. We are not profiting. And I'm beginning to be paranoid that I'm repeating myself in Author's Notes…_

* * *

><p>It took Rock a little while to figure out how to even broach the subject to Dr. Light. He didn't want to worry his father, but at the same time, he needed Dr. Light's help. So he slipped down into the lab, where Dr. Light was examining Splashwoman and the others. Roll said that they were okay, that so far none of the damage he'd inflicted on them was permanent.<p>

That was a relief. He still felt a little bad about interrupting, but…

"Dr. Light?"

"Yes, Rock?" Dr. Light asked. "Would you mind fetching me the eyeglass screwdrivers?" The very, very tiny ones. "And my reading glasses. Or, if you're feeling up to it..." Would Rock like to help?

Yes, Rock would like to help. He'd like to help even if he didn't need something from Dr. Light. This was what he was built for, wasn't it? To help Dr. Light and maybe even Blues, too? He retrieved the requested items and moved back over to his father. "Are they okay?" He didn't hurt them too badly, did he? Just by looking at them on the surface, it looked bad, but now that he could see the internal components…it didn't look as bad. They still needed a lot of work, but it looked repairable.

"Yes, don't worry, Rock. I'm just rechecking them one more time, just to be sure." Before they went back to their jobs/homes.

Rock relaxed a bit. That was good. Good that they would live, good that they would be able to return to their jobs. "Dr. Light…I was made to help you in the lab, right?"

"Yes, why?" Dr. Light asked, trying to get his eyes to focus on one of Splashwoman's scales, the tiny ones at the end of her tail, near the tailfin.

Rock was quiet for a moment, letting Dr. Light find what he needed on Splashwoman before continuing, "Was I built to help Blues, too?"

Oh? He had to think for a moment, that was a long time ago. "Yes, or well, I suppose. Blues' job was to produce the programming, of course. I suppose you might have ended up doing most of the maintenance and construction work, after I checked over the designs."

Rock tilted his head, considering this bit of information, then, "Was I built to be his _support unit_, though?"

"Well, you were built to be a support unit, or that was what he wrote in the designs, although it didn't mean quite the same thing back then." These days support units were, well, animal-level. Not as intelligent as robot masters. "Why? Is that bothering you?"

Sometimes, it was hard for Rock to translate his feelings into something Dr. Light would understand. The same way Rock didn't fully understand Kalinka. "No, it's not bothering me, but…it makes sense." Made sense that he always wanted Blues' approval, that it was such a relief whenever he got it. Now that he knew, he _had_ to go. "Dr. Light…I…" Rock trailed off for a moment before deciding to just take the plunge. "If I have a block on my wireless reception, if something is keeping me from transmitting…can you remove it?" Okay, well, now he said it. He fixed Dr. Light with a worried face, worried that he might refuse.

Now Dr. Light looked up at him, blinked, and put aside his reading glasses. "In fact you do, but I'm not really sure... I don't think that's safe. Not when Dr. Wily is still out there. That firewall has been in place for so long that I doubt you have much in the way of other defenses, although perhaps I could copy some of Roll's. But why are you asking, Rock?"

"Dr. Light…I want to go see Blues. I…I can't do that with this barrier there." Not any more. Not now that he knew.

Dr. Light frowned, wondering what had brought this on. "Are you sure?" Why did Rock feel this way? He tilted his head, showing that he wanted to listen, even though this sounded like an absolutely awful idea. Not when Rock had never defended his systems from an assault, even in practice, and Blues? Honestly, he'd rather Rock open an unguarded link with Dr. Wily's computer systems. There would be booby traps, but Dr. Wily wouldn't be able to react as fast.

"I…I was built to be his support, right?" Dr. Light even said so. "It's…" Rock was really struggling with words, struggling to form a coherent description for these new feelings. "He's hurting, and I'm supposed to be his support unit, too, and if I can't even do that much…" Rock began to get a little upset at the end there and had to stop, take a breath to give himself a moment. If Rock couldn't even fulfill that, wouldn't he have failed at his purpose? "And with the block in place, I can't…" Can't link up to him, can't interface with him, can't show Blues that he really was sincere, that this wasn't a ploy. That Rock wasn't being used.

Dr. Light hugged him on general principles. "Rock, you are a person. I know that I've let you go into harm's way often enough, but... Don't put yourself on the same level as Rush." Who was a robot dog, but a dog. "I know that you're worried about him: I am too, but... Please don't do anything hasty."

Rock shook his head: Dr. Light wasn't understanding him! "I know I'm a person, it's not that I'm less than that, but…" Was there even a human equivalent to this? "But he's my brother," the _only_ older brother he had, "And I was built to…to help him," He knew that a word like "serve" would give Dr. Light the wrong impression, "and he's hurting, but the way he is now…" He would definitely suspect a trap. Rock also…now that he realized it, he _wanted_ it. He wanted to help, so, so badly.

"Rock... I've tried to ask him to let me work on him, when he brought you here last time. He claimed that he was perfectly alright, that he knew his systems better than I did. I'm sure he's not in any immediate danger." No matter what Dr. Light had heard about when Blues had fought King.

Rock looked down at Splashwoman's prone body. This…he trembled a little. "Dr. Light…" His voice was begging, pleading. "If I can't do this, then what good am I?" If he couldn't fulfill this most basic of his directives, if he couldn't accomplish this simple thing? "He's my brother, and he's hurting, and if I can't…"

"Rock..." Rock was a hero, and yes, he valued his family, but, "You can't mean... You've had a directive to serve him, all this time? But I went over your programming!"

If Dr. Light had Forte's mouth, his reaction would have been more along the lines of 'Oh _fuck_.'

Because this was bad.

Rock was shaking again and leaned into Dr. Light, grasping at his lab coat. Pleading, because he didn't know what else to _do._ "Dr. Light, please…" He wanted to find Blues, he wanted to help him. Now that he understood who Blues was to him, it was like the directive took priority over most other things.

"I'll do what I can, Rock. Just, just come over here, and lie down," Dr. Light said, trying not to panic. Hopefully this was something new. Something that hadn't dug its way into all of Rock's programs, like the three laws. Hopefully this was simply Rock being Rock, his usual, caring, self-sacrificing, loving self, and not Blues' vengeance upon his creator.

Rock nodded and went to one of the examination tables, an empty one. He hopped up onto it easily and laid down, closing his eyes. He trusted Dr. Light, trusted that his father would help him. He was…anxious, in a way he'd rarely been before. Was he nervous? "Thank you, Dr. Light."

* * *

><p>When Roll came home, the house was dark. She had to ask one of her robots to find out that Dr. Light and Rock were in the lab.<p>

When the light clicked on, Dr. Light was sitting in a chair by the edge of one of the exam tables, elbows on the table, head in his hands.

"Dr. Light? What…why are you down here, in the dark?" She was alarmed, his body language demonstrated that he was upset, but what happened? The lab was intact, so no one had come and ransacked it. Her garden was in one piece, so Forte hadn't come by. "Where's Rock?" Wasn't he down here, too? He wouldn't have let Dr. Light just sit down here like this, in the dark. It wasn't safe!

"He's here." On the exam table. "There's nothing I can do. It's already overridden the Three Laws, it did that _years _ago. All those times he's put himself in such danger, ignoring the third law, and I just ignored it. In fact, I was happy. Not that he was in danger, but that the laws weren't hurting him, keeping him from helping others. He established his prime directive as, as his Zeroth law, and I didn't see it until now. Of course. Blues knew that I intended to install some version of the laws into both of you. That time, during the incident with the mother computer," and that poor yellow demon, "you ignored Dr. Wily's order to get him water. And I thought it was just clever of you, that you'd found some loophole." He sighed, sounding so _tired_. "I don't know what I can do."

Wait, what? "What…what are you talking about? What's overridden the Three Laws? Is…_does Rock have a virus?"_ Who. Who did this to her brother? They were going to _pay._ She stepped forward, into the room and looked around. Rock was…he was just lying there, on the examination table, like he was sleeping. In status?

"It's not a virus. A virus can be cured. This isn't something that infiltrated his core program, this _is _his core program. The one Blues designed." He knew he should explain more, but Roll was a clever girl and he didn't want to have to say it. "Just like he did yours." He shook his head. "It was in plain sight, the whole time." Rock's determination, his strength of will, the way he kept going no matter what, when his family or someone else needed help.

Wait…Blues designed _that much_ of their programming? "But then…" But then her own programming would reflect Rock's. And if it was entrenched in every single corner of their minds…not even a complete wipe would fix it. Dr. Light would have to rebuild and reprogram them from the ground up. And the result wouldn't be Rock and Roll, it would be two new children.

There was no way to remove it. "How much…the core programming…" She's ask Dr. Light if he was sure, except this wasn't something he'd ever be unsure about. "Dr. Light…" What was he going to do? What were they going to do?

"Blues is the source of the core programs that are used to develop all robot masters. He was created in order to form and derive those principles. Recursive self-editing..." Well, it was moot now. "To not use programs that come from him would mean... He's the source of the programming that makes you _sentient_, Roll. Sapient. And without sapience, you can't solve problems any better than a primitive computer." With _vacuum tubes_, he might have said, if he was given to hyperbole. "This is... I would have to create a new base unit, and the only guarantee that he couldn't hack it would be..." if Blues was dead or, "if it couldn't be hacked, like X, and he can't act as a robot master. His mental security means he can't network the way you do." He'd gotten the idea from Rock, actually. X and those derived from him would be much closer to humanity. Not that Rock wasn't a real boy. "To let this get out, why Blues shut down in the first place... It would mean the end of your species." And he couldn't do that.

Roll had to take a minute to process this. "He was programmed to derive this, to master it…" He wouldn't tolerate anyone lording over him, so naturally, the ones that came after would have to be below him. Blues was just following his programming. Doing what he was programmed to, what he was built for. "Why did you bring Rock offline?" Was he acting strangely? Was there something wrong with him?

"He wanted his firewalls lowered to grant Blues that access."

"He _what?"_ Roll's expression could be summed up by _"Hell no!"_

"Exactly." That was his reaction, even if he'd been less outraged and more worried.

Roll looked torn between screaming and wanting to break something. "He…of course." She sounded exasperated now, albeit still angry. "He acknowledges Blues as the superior unit. Of course he wants to grant him access." She shook her head: she wasn't expecting Rock to act on it so quickly.

Dr. Light finally looked at her, regret and worry on his face. "Roll..." You too? He knew it, but...

She felt vaguely insulted, the way she had been when Dr. Wily ordered her to fetch him a glass of water. "I'm not acknowledging that jerk as a superior model." No way.

"Do you want to look at my coding, too, though?" It might be different from Rock's. There might be more answers with two coding sets to look at.

"Yes, perhaps it might be possible to patch him." Perhaps it might work, as a stopgap. "I think I need to install a copy of your anti-cracking defenses into him." Yesterday. "Because even if I don't lower the firewall, he might figure out how to." He couldn't reinforce the firewall now: the logs would give Rock's system clues to how it operated, potential security flaws.

Roll nodded; installing her defenses would give Rock something to protect him if Dr. Light did lower the firewalls. She thought, a bit bitterly, that Dr. Light wouldn't have a choice. He'd scrabble at his own firewalls until he'd torn them up from the inside, do everything he could to get them down if he determined they were in the way of his directive.

She wondered if finding out who Blues was what triggered his programming somehow.

It must have: before, he'd thought that Blues was just another erratic Wilybot. That and an older brother were two entirely different things.

Roll walked over to another examination table, the one beside Rock, and hopped up to sit on it. They were a bit higher than a girl her size would easily be able to access, but she wasn't a normal girl. "Do you want me to go offline right now?" Or would you rather have company for a bit?

Roll was worried: Dr. Light was upset.

"Since this is something I've missed for years, I think a second pair of eyes might help." Might, but he could hope.

Roll nodded and shifted to face Dr. Light. She could analyze code much faster than a human could, so she'd be able to spot if she had the same sort of core programming as Rock in an instant. Once she knew what she was looking for.

"This program is roughly the desire to look after smaller robots with more primitive systems. It's far more powerful a drive in you than Rock, of course. I tried to remove any subservience, but here. The obedience to superior models is _implied _by this program." Even though lesser robots had an obedience program, the mastery program still, by saying that it was right and proper for superior robots to look after small ones, and this was for the benefit of all, still established in a robot master's mind that this was the way robots were, and both aspects of it, caring and obedience, could and should apply to them as well. In the presence of a superior unit, mind. Most robot masters did _not _like another robot master claiming to be better than them, because the unworthy did _not _have a right to command them.

In hindsight, Dr. Light had to wonder about Forte's obsession with being the best and most powerful. Was he really just trying to prove it to Dr. Wily? If he admitted that Rock was more powerful than he was, would he feel compelled to serve him, since Wily had obviously based him on Rock's physical and psychological designs? Was that the true source of Forte's obstinate defiance, the reason admitting defeat seemed so unbearable a thing for him to do?

Was that why Wily's robot masters so rarely challenged Rock more than once or twice? Because he'd proven his strength and determination to them, and it went against their instincts to defy a clearly-superior model after that?

Roll nodded, "That's right. If a robot isn't performing its job as well as it could be, it's the superior model's responsibility to correct and guide." So if there was someone who could be that guide, be that mentor, even a robot master would crave their input, their guidance, their approval. It was a definite hierarchy that, once established, was never challenged by the worker robots. None of her robots would ever claim that she was unfit, the same way none of Elec's would do that to him. It would be absurd. A robot that did that would have a bug in its systems, and it'd be the master's responsibility to find the illness and _purge_ it.

It got a bit hazier when talking about robot master to robot master relations: how did one define superiority among robots of the same rank? They mostly deferred to whomever's territory it was. In her home, Cut and the others deferred to her. If she went to one of Gutsman's construction sites, his word would be law. Neither was superior, but there were lines drawn.

"And Rock..." hated fighting. Always hated it when people were injured, wished he could do better, like that time with the power crystals. It was miracle enough that they'd survived to make it back to Earth, and he'd cared about, well, admittedly, incredibly powerful power sources, but Rock had done so well, and Dr. Light had to tell him that it was for the best, really, so he didn't feel as though he'd failed to accomplish his objective.

"Rock has fragments of the obedience program. And they've been strengthened by his life experience. Since he only has command over a handful of robots, and isn't the one to upgrade them and so on, his status is still listed as a robot. At least one with no particular master, he just considered himself attached to this family, household... world. Until now." Robots had orderly minds, like an orderly hierarchy. Trying to take care of, figure out how to serve everyone at once must have been quite trying for Rock.

And he was still a child, and children thought there were easy answers out there, that adults knew how to tell them how to do things right and could dispense this wisdom.

"So he craves that correction, guidance." And now he had a source that could provide it, if he found Rock worthy.

"…Yes. The fact that none of Blues' manipulations ended badly for Rock probably reinforced it," Cemented that yes, Blues really was superior, wiser, could guide Rock reliably. And with Rock trying to do so much already, it must have been such a huge relief to realize that it didn't all have to be him. That it was okay that he was unsure, that there was at least one person with answers.

Dr. Light groaned. "I can't believe I'm seriously considering asking Dr. Wily for a copy of Forte's programs."

"Even if he did give them…Forte is _violent._" Rock would not be happy with that change. Rock hated hurting others, so installing something that would, more than likely, make him overly aggressive? She didn't want to see her brother reduced to that.

"That's not the component I want, although yes, that might be a side effect. I want his inability to admit that others are superior. He's quite bone-headed when it comes to that, from what I hear."

Roll tilted her head and looked down at Rock. He'd…he'd be quite upset if he could hear what they were saying right now. But would that be because he's Rock, or be because the core programs were making him feel that way? Was Rock even distinct from his core programming? Was she from hers? Rock wanted Blues. But if Blues rejected him, if Blues dismissed him…she could hear the Copy's scream, even in her mind. It'd be worse than that.

Which was right when both could hurt him so much?

"Can't we..." She started to say, but then fell silent when no alternative popped into her head.

"What, Roll?" Because if she had another idea, Dr. Light was desperate to hear it.

"Can't we try to get in touch with Blues? I mean, he's put so much effort into training Rock." From what he'd said to her that time. "To be able to handle fighting for peace on his own. If he really let the Copy die because he couldn't stand to have a support unit—just a thought," she said hurriedly, when she saw the look in Dr. Light's face. "I'm probably wrong. Anyway, he might help." Might. It should be less annoying in the long run. "I mean, if he wanted Rock like that, he probably would have done something by now." Instead of bringing Rock home to them, or making sure he survived to get home.

Getting in touch with Blues was also what Rock wanted, although for different reasons. And Blues would be impossible to predict to begin with, but Dr. Light was certain he'd view any talk of reprogramming distastefully. They'd have to make it clear that it was to help Rock, not to repress or confine him.

"...Of course, the point is to not let him get handed to that jerk on a silver platter." Roll sighed, tapping her fingers on the table in a pattern. It was soothing, but she knew not to do it for too long, or Dr. Light might find it annoying. "If he was _trustworthy_, then this wouldn't be a problem in the first place."

Dr. Light frowned, but he fully understood where Roll was coming from. Blues was untrustworthy in that he was so manipulative. Trying to divert him was like trying to hold back a natural disaster. Wily was easier to deal with in that he could be understood, in that his actions had an underlying sense that Light could follow even if he didn't agree.

Blues, though? Even though Dr. Light understood Blues' programming, understood how his mind works…he was good at what he was programmed to do. Too good at it.

"If we at least give him some of your defensive programs, he'll be protected. Rock wanted to go there to talk to Blues about his condition," about his health, "but if Blues takes advantage of it…" But if Blues didn't want a support unit, it would work in their favor, he might be willing to help them get Rock out of this mess…

"Defense programs aren't any good if he won't use them... but I shouldn't underestimate Rock." She knew better. "And he's used to fighting Blues." It was training, so he was used to fighting even a superior model, even if he hadn't known he was _this _model.

Dr. Light could hope that Rock would push back despite this new information, despite this new prioritization in his directives. If Rock truly felt that Blues needed help, needed to be looked at, needed to be worked on, he would fight seriously, for Blues' sake. Harming him to help him.

Dr. Light just wished he knew a way to help Blues. He could try, but Blues was right, he did know his systems better than Dr. Light did, and Dr. Light couldn't even figure out how to help Rock with a problem on a similar level.

But now that Rock knew that Blues was hurting, he wouldn't be able to leave it alone. He wanted to help. Dr. Light wasn't sure he'd be able to completely deter him. To a human, you would say "live and let live", but to a robot master? Did that sort of philosophy even apply in this kind of situation? "Alright, Roll," Dr. Light sounded much more tired than he had in weeks, "We should start with those defensive programs." If they were also entrenched with that programming…

He didn't know what he'd do.


	6. Synesthesia

_There is an alternate universe implied in here, in that it was a possibility that never came to fruition. Laryna and I are tossing around the idea of writing a story about what'd have happened if the possibility did come to fruition and Blues had been allowed to fulfill his primary directive. Or at least, the directive we gave him for the purpose of this story._

_ We finished book 4 of Recovery, so perhaps as another side story? Very possible._

_Also: we do not own Rockman, Capcom does. This great fun is not making us any profit.  
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><p>Rock came around, blinking sleepily as the ceiling came into focus. Notifications posted to his processor as he booted completely, notifying him of systems changes. He stared absently at the ceiling for a few milliseconds as he went through them, acknowledging the changes.<p>

Something was wrong.

His brow furrowed as he tried to focus.

There was data—it was so jumbled! He laid perfectly still, his irises moving millimeters as he flicked through his data, trying to make sense of it. There were….shapes floating in his vision. Strange, echoing sounds. It was almost ethereal: it made him think of what humans describe when they ingest hallucinogens, except he could think clearly, prod at it.

It took him a few moments more to realize that none of this sensory input was actually being gathered by his optics or his audio receivers. It was…coming from elsewhere, but appearing here. Strange. Why would that…

Oh, how _creepy. _He could extend this…sensory input, feel around with it, although he wasn't making heads or tails of it. Trying to push outward was causing dizzying phenomena in his vision and it got…not louder, but _busier._ Like everything was just as far away, but there was more of it. Like a constant murmur.

He could…there was a shift in the input, and the sensory system homed in on the source: a potential hostile takeover. A preset response began to initialize, pinpointing the hostility and intending to lance it through, throw it out. Scramble it, confuse it long enough for him to recuperate, to gather himself and escape—

A voice caught Rock's attention, half-drowned out by the murmur, and the peripheral slid back into green when he realized that the entity was Roll. Just as quickly as the warnings appeared, they closed out, leaving Rock in his normal status.

That….what was that? It was targeting Roll, just for scanning him? Why, when did he have this? Was this part of what Dr. Light unlocked? "Roll…?"

"Rock?" Her face hovered over him, but there was so much _more _there. Roll, and his house, and that broom, and that warm nostalgic feeling. Yes, this was his (twin) sister. They'd been made as a matched set—What? No they hadn't. He was supposed to work in the lab and Roll in the house, although these days Roll did most things. She'd actually gotten to spend more time working on X with Dr. Light than he had, not that he was jealous.

He had to leave for the wars, leave to fight Dr. Wily, after all. This…he could feel the whole house. He knew where everything was. He could sense movements within, of Roll's robots, though they weren't his to direct. He knew where Rush was. He was home, and that was correct, they were here, as they should be…even if something felt wrong. What was going on? Slowly, Rock placed a hand to his forehead, his eyes focusing on Roll again before becoming unfocused, everything else too distracting. He couldn't make sense of it. "What…what happened?"

"Dr. Light and I lowered your firewalls. We were going to give you copies of my defense programs, but it turned out you already had most of it." Except he didn't have the new stuff she'd added since she was turned on and his programs were, well, targeted differently than hers. If you were going to fight someone mind-to-mind, it was better to do it in their mind, so if things got damaged they wouldn't be your things.

Roll was designed to take control of other robots. Rock's defenses were designed to take over, incapacitate, but not master them. "Your mental defenses were written to subdue your opponents." To hand them off to someone else. "Dr. Light didn't know most of that was there, it wasn't when he looked your programs over when you were made. We think it was an Easter Egg." Timed to turn on six months later, after Dr. Light would have finished testing them.

Rock was quiet for a few moments, taking Roll's words in. He ventured an attempt at sitting up. He swayed slightly, a little shaky with his sensory perception doing such crazy things. Was this how it always was for Roll, for Elec and everyone? "An Easter Egg?" Those…phrased that way, it sounded bad. Was it something malicious? "I…I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" He didn't think he had, Roll seemed okay and this sort of program wouldn't work against a human: it was specifically designed with robot masters in mind. But still, he felt a bit like he was flailing around, unable to find his footing.

"No, you didn't, but you might have." That was why they'd sent Auto on an errand before waking Rock up. "You should probably get some practice before you talk to any of the others." He might not know their IDs the way he did Roll's.

Roll might have bitten her lip if she were human. She was trying not to think of Blues attacking him with this when they met. Training him to fight with this. Rock was already as good as she was, or as she could have been if she wanted to do things like that. She wouldn't steal anyone else's robots, of course not.

Rock tilted his head. Yes, practice sounded good. He didn't want to hurt anyone, especially not carelessly like this. "There's…a lot of visual and audio noise…is that normal?" He wasn't speaking any louder like a human may have, but his processor allowed him to follow multiple trains of thought, pay attention to multiple stimuli at the same time. He'd have been overloaded were he human.

That didn't sound normal, or good, to Roll. "Can you upload it to me? The data?" Roll might have reached into his head and taken it, but she didn't want to startle him. Also, she didn't have permission for that sort of thing yet. Politeness was important.

She didn't want to think that the reason Rock was more dangerous than she was right now might not be because Rock's defenses were panicking, thinking they were under threat because the firewall was gone but because Roll had spent all this time learning how to hold herself back.

Rock nodded and after an instant, the upload request flickered across Roll's attention. He uploaded the audio/visual files from the moment he woke up and added the logs that detailed his systems changes. The warnings that his firewalls were down and how his systems reacted. Rock was holding very still this entire time, and Roll realized it was to keep from jostling himself, to minimize any disruption to the input. He was holding still to keep it from escalating.

Roll frowned. "That's just normal data. Wow, you're sensitive, though." He wasn't limiting it to the frequency bands robot masters were supposed to use, he was taking in everything he could. "I guess it's a lot to sort through, when you haven't done this before... You get satellite TV? All the channels?" Lucky. Of course, Roll could, now that she thought about it. But that would be wrong. Still, if they got a subscription and were paying for it _anyway, _and it wasn't like Dr. Light couldn't afford it, she'd never miss her shows again.

Rock tilted his head again. "I'll have to organize it," It was maddeningly chaotic, the data was everywhere. So it was just supposed to show up like that? He supposed he could designate one of his subprocessors to receive the data and organize it before he received it. That would work really well, actually. "Um..." How should he even practice this? Where was he supposed to even begin?

She sat next to him on the bed. "Do you want to try to connect? I can see what I can do." Pass him programs, try to come up with patches.

Rock nodded, that would help. Roll could at least guide him, show him how to use it. Everyone else woke up with this enabled? He was…he had a greater respect for his siblings, that they'd waded through this sensory quagmire on top of everything else when they were newbuilt and knew nothing. "We can try connecting," though he was hesitant to initiate it. He wasn't sure what his defensive programs would do, what his offensive programs would do.

"We were while you were in sleep mode," being worked on. "Your systems aren't going to attack me," provided they knew it was her, but she was making that obvious. "I mean, we were supposed to work together. In the same house, at least."

Rock nodded again and this time, he initialized the connection, queried Roll for permission. Even if he'd never done this before, he usually was successful at being polite in new situations.

It was like holding hands, or calibrating something. Zeroing a scale. Tuning a piano. He knew what Roll was like, so now that he had Roll here, he could sort everything else in terms of Roll. Well, most things. The things pertaining to robot masters, he guessed.

Was he supposed to learn how to sort other signals, things related to humans and natural signals, from Blues?

If Blues intended to work with them so closely, if he built them to work together so well, then why did he stay away? Having Roll here helped, though, and her organizational tendencies fell in line with his own. Their tastes were similar. They were made to work together, after all.

Wait, no. Well, yes, they were made to work together at times, but they had two different designations. So why were his systems considering them as something else?

The Twins. The right hand, and the left, the... Rock stopped the search thread. He didn't really want to know right now. Not when it was worrying Roll as well. "Maybe you shouldn't link to me right now," he said, disengaging reluctantly and setting up a minor white noise barrier. "I want to try to bring him home so he can be fixed. He must be hurting all the time. But if he was willing, he could have come in any time. I don't want you to be in danger, Roll." Not ever.

Blues wouldn't agree if Rock just asked. Rock wanted to look at him, see how bad it was, see how badly he was hurting. If Blues would let him. He wanted to get him help, he was worried. But it wouldn't be right to drag Roll into it. He didn't think Blues would take her hostage the way Forte had, but… Even if Blues wasn't working with them, the Wilybots might take advantage somehow. He'd rather Roll not be there.

She almost said that he should at least take some of her robots with him, but then vetoed that statement, surprised. She didn't _have _combat robots: why had she suddenly thought that of course she did, and they were part of Rock's normal support, like Rush and Eddie?

Just what had Blues intended for them?

It took a few minutes, but Rock was able to clean up his input so that it wasn't…blasting at him everywhere. He left it open, mostly, though he did cut off any connections to things like private phone calls. That…even if it was accidental, it made him feel bad. At least he wouldn't hear any more. Roll said he was very sensitive, and he clearly had a setup to figure out humans and things beyond robot masters. Did Blues intend for him to learn about humans, to understand them? Was that why he was getting more input? Or was it just because he'd never used it before, so everything was open?

He liked people, and meeting people, but, "Roll?" he asked, hesitantly. "Do you... Do you think I was built to fight?"

Roll paused, frowning. "I…think you were built to be able to defend yourself." But to program a personality that hated fighting into a warbot? She'd…she'd prefer to think that even Blues wouldn't be that cruel. "Most of these are for incapacitating. If you were for fighting, it'd make more sense to make you able to master." Like how Roll was built. The idea that she might have been built to fight was just…

No, Blues was definitely not a superior model. A superior model didn't behave so sadistically.

He'd meant to take over the world, Dr. Light had said, and she really didn't think he would joke about something like that, not when they all knew Dr. Wily. He'd know it when he saw it. So if Blues intended Rock to support him while he did something like that? Was it only because Blues had been shut down and Dr. Light had raised them that Rock was so kind? And what about her?

But Dr. Light also insisted that Blues was capable of genuinely caring about others despite the way he viewed the world. Despite the way he viewed himself in it. He was built to master, to figure out the most effective strategy set and execute it. Looking after lesser robots was a major part of his own instinct set, and Dr. Light even said that he included humanity, human governments, under that umbrella.

But then what were they for? With all these combat capabilities, all these nasty hidden surprises in their own programming. What had he meant for them, what kind of existence?

Had they dodged a bullet when Blues was shut down?

Dr. Light certainly thought so.

"I wonder if I could find him if I used this." Rock focused. What should he listen for, to find Blues?

Of course: that music.

Roll hesitated: if Rock found him, what if he actually came? It'd be better here than anywhere else, but…no, Blues wouldn't come. He'd make Rock come to him. Rock wasn't in any danger, no one was threatening him.

She knew that she should stay here, safe, if he went. She'd talked about this with Dr. Light: they'd need her if they wanted to have any hope of getting him back if things went badly, although they still would need all the help they could get. Yet, right now, she felt like she _couldn't _let him go alone. She just couldn't.

Not when his firewalls were down and he had barely any idea how to use his field. He was like a newbuilt with it, although he was more considerate about it than one of the babies. He had a sense of manners. Maybe it was more correct to say he was…humans on bicycles, learning how to ride them. Wobbly, unsure. That's what it made Roll think of.

Rock's eyes opened, looking both surprised and a little troubled. He'd felt a…a feeling like he was being watched, or maybe witnessed? Then a pull, like a beckon. Coordinates.

_Teleportation Coordinates confirmed. _

_ Teleport now? Ok/Cancel. _

Dr. Light's house was supposed to have a shield up. Roll's shield.

Well, that might be why Blues had been able to show up in and escape from the middle of Wilybot bases anytime he wanted.

Rock smiled at Roll, not entirely joyous, but…relieved. A relieved smile. He accepted the coordinates and initiated the teleportation.

She hesitated almost a quarter of a second, but she couldn't _not _go.

Both of them were surprised by where they ended up. Especially after what Dr. Light said, they expected something more, well, more than an abandoned warehouse, dark except for the sunset light that pierced through the cracks in the corrugated iron walls and through broken window panes.

They might have thought this was just someplace random he had decided to meet them if Blues hadn't been sitting there, back against a large crate, fiddling with his buster. One of the panels was open and he was looking at one of the replacement parts dubiously—Rock remembered how Blues' buster started cracking and almost fell apart when he helped with Gamma. It shouldn't have been low quality: it was Dr. Wily's work, after all. Blues just focused too much power through it. Tango was crouched at his side, near the small stack of E-cans and the toolbox.

The thing that startled Roll most of all was, "A radio?" An old, scratchy radio? When he must have something like Rock's capabilities?

"It's not a phonograph, but those are harder to replace."

Harder to repair, too. Did Blues do all of his own repairs, then? One-handed? It was Rock's turn to look dubious. Robot or no, that was just inefficient. Even if Blues couldn't trust Drs. Light and Wily, what about Dr. Cossack? He always meant well and was grateful to Blues for saving Kalinka to boot.

Did Blues hate letting others help him that much? Or was it that it was that hard for him to trust others?

It made Rock feel bad: he'd have helped Blues, if he'd asked, even when Rock thought he was a Wilybot.

He should at least have his own robots to help him: he had to be capable of building them, even _Auto _could make his own. Roll had thought she'd find something more like, well, a Wilybot's base. Not something that barely qualified as a camp. "You're working on yourself someplace with all this dust?" Not that there was _that _much of it, but still.

He slotted the part into place temporarily and looked up at her. "I don't exactly have access to maid service anymore." The corner of his mouth turned up. "Dr. Light kept it." Staying at hotels meant running the risk of being tracked: all but the worst of them required ID nowadays. He wasn't worried about human authorities, but Dr. Wily could be annoying when he felt like it.

Rock stepped forward then. Really, he stayed in places like this? Didn't he ever get lonely? "Do you need any help?" He was worried: Blues could be careless with himself. What he did to his buster during the third war looked painful, and he'd gone back to Wily after that, after betraying him.

It made Rock wonder if it even made a difference to Blues, since he was in pain anyway.

"I don't," he said, and they couldn't tell if he even looked at Rock. His voice was just slightly irritated by the implication, but warned against saying anything like that again.

"Yes, you don't need help, when you haven't secured that properly and every second you leave that panel open more dust can get in and the parts will burn out faster... Oh, give me that," Roll said, striding forward to pluck the screwdriver out of Blues' hand, take his arm and kneel down next to him. She just couldn't stand to see someone doing it wrong, especially when they could get hurt because of it.

He was irritated? He was the one that implied that she was just his, his _maid service_. Of all things!

Rock didn't even know what to say. He had a lot to say, but if even offering to help was irritating Blues… Why did he even give them the coordinates? But still, Roll was right: there was no sense in Blues doing it himself when someone with two hands would do it better.

The new sensory perception was…strange. There was a lot more loose data still, even though he'd organized some of it. He'd need time to really concentrate to clean it up properly. He could see status indicators for both Roll and Blues, very basic information. He wondered if he'd be able to see that with the Wilybots, too, or if that would be locked from him. Still, though, there were scans running on both of his siblings and he realized he didn't remember initializing them. Was it just scanning automatically? Was that right? Roll didn't seem alarmed when she linked to him, when she could experience what he could, but still…

Maybe the novelty of it was scaring him a little bit.

Blues reached up with his now-free hand, placing it on Roll's head. The sense of regret/happiness to see her/self-mockery/gratitude might have been appreciated, and the warm feeling of nostalgia that she recognized now from Rock's memories (as though she was a newbuilt again, in Dr. Light's care), if he'd had _permission_.

"Sorry," he said, half-smiling with that same blend of emotion. But he didn't remove the hand, feeling her hair. He remembered trying to decide what to use for the two of them—actual human hair seemed so morbid, even if it came from living humans. At least he had synthetic now, courtesy of Dr. Wily.

Neither of them seemed to mind the scans, anyway. Rock didn't know what was considered intrusive, but he'd bank that a more in-depth scan might be. He didn't think Roll would mind, but…

Blues hadn't wanted help. Or rather, he'd wanted it, but flat-out rejected the offer. Rock was happy that Roll was helping him, but he felt an ache rise in him nevertheless. The lack of regard was becoming more upsetting by the second, but he didn't know what to do. They were here, standing right here, so why did Rock feel like there was a chasm between them?

He felt the prickle of Blues' amusement that he wasn't getting it. "If you want to come over here, just come." He wasn't going to ask for it, or hold Rock's hand through things he should know in his code.

Rock started: of course, with his firewalls lifted, he could be read that much more easily, too. Not that he wasn't already an open book. He'd picked up how to mimic human facial expressions very, very quickly. That flush, too, was picked up to emulate humans. He moved to sit on Blues' other side, across from Roll. "Sorry," he felt a bit sheepish.

"That's alright." _You've picked up bad habits, adapting to him instead of me_. It wasn't his fault, though, Blues said with the hand that was now in his hair. "The current situation is the best that can be achieved. It's natural for you to want to do something to help your family, but this is the best that can be done. Go back home, stay with Dr. Light. Keep doing what you've been doing. You can think of that as my command, if you need one." Although he felt a bit dismissive of the idea of commanding Rock.

"Blues…" This was the best that can be achieved? No! "This isn't right," It wasn't right that he was hurting, it wasn't right that Blues had to hide in a warehouse when Rock had somewhere safe to return to. It wasn't right that he'd hidden that they were brothers all this time…if anything about this actually angered Rock, it was that. That Blues was sick made him sad, that Blues didn't trust others made him sad. But…why had he kept that from Rock?

"Because then you would have felt this way. Or worse, if I'd stayed with Dr. Wily." Having to view his own brother as his nemesis? "I'm tempted to wipe your memories. If I start wiping your memories, you can't fulfill your original function. But then, Dr. Light's three laws take care of half that function and make the rest impossible, so there's no point. Either way, you can't do what you were made for." Ah, well. Still, poor Rock.

Blues refused to let either of them feel if he felt any sadness or pain for his own sake.

He…couldn't fulfill his directives? Rock trembled a bit, trying to understand. He really was, but Blues wasn't letting them feel very much. So whatever he was concealing would probably upset Rock more. "I feel this way now, though." Wiping Rock's memories was…would he be broken after that, with a piece of himself missing? "And you won't let Dr. Light even try…" Won't let anyone close, won't let anyone help him…

"The only thing he can do is make the situation worse. Either my personality will be destroyed or he might actually succeed in removing the three laws," although Blues clearly doubted he'd be that stupid, "And neither outcome is one you'd like." Since yes, then he would take over the world. Try? There was no try, only do. "It's not your fault you can't fulfill your original purpose, it's his. And now you have a new one, regardless." He pet Rock's head.

Rock looked down again. This wasn't _right._ So what, he was supposed to leave Blues like this, knowing that he was afflicted, knowing that he was hurting? He shook his head. Dr. Light could only make it worse? He couldn't even do anything to alleviate Blues' pain?

He…he did have a new purpose, but…what good was saving people like that if he couldn't even protect his own family? Logically, he knew that he wouldn't stop donning the armor of Mega Man even if Blues told him he never wanted to see him again, but if he couldn't even do this small thing…

He was made to help, he was a lab assistant, he was supposed to specialize in fixing others, in helping them feel better, helping them work better…

How could Blues say this was futile? Had he given up on himself already?

"No. It's not futile. I might not be able to do anything about humanity," not with the laws in place: there was no such thing as a bloodless revolution, much less conquest, "but at least I can try to ensure the survival of my species." _Your survival_.

Blues' hand on his head was comforting; he didn't mind that he hadn't asked permission to. He liked the attention. "What about _your_ survival?" _Who's looking after you, when you won't even let people come close enough for basic repairs? _

"I can't keep you," Blues said calmly. "Even if you were made for me. Doing so would put the entire world in danger, and destroy everything you, Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Cossack and all the others have worked for. So you will have to keep being the hero they need, and I need to keep watching from the shadows. Unless, of course, you want me to take over the world, and you can spend the rest of your long existence trying to restrict me to a reasonable level of heartless cruelty." Now he smirked.

"You're not heartless," Rock rebutted. _Or cruel._ He really believed that, too, even if Blues' methods were, at times, questionable at best. He still looked out for everyone, still looked out for Rock. Rock still…still wanted to be able to return the favor, even if it wasn't constant.

"I was made to be," Blues pointed out. "Hmm, so that's what he told you both." They hadn't even noticed him in their memory files: it had felt so, well, normal. Like his hand in their hair, or Roll just working on his arm without permission. A comfortable kind of closeness, with family. Something he would have had every right to do if they had been his, and a lot of their programming thought they were.

Rock abstinently argued that regardless of what he was supposedly made to be, he wasn't heartless. He'd been made to be mindless, too, after all. He certainly wasn't that.

Speaking of people who didn't believe he was heartless, Roll couldn't help thinking of Kalinka: despite her brothers' protests, no matter what people said, she didn't believe he was heartless or evil in any sense of the word.

"You are a good kid, but then you were made to be." He tugged Rock down a bit, let Rock lean against his right side. "I think heartless is a good word for someone who manipulates a young version of their favorite thing into committing suicide. Although Shadowman has some better ones. None of them unprintable, surprisingly." Such an honorable, upright bot.

Rock's eyes had gotten quite round at the words "favorite thing", and Roll couldn't help thinking that Kalinka would _kill_ for a copy of this memory file. Unhelmeted Blues snuggling Rock? She'd be able to stay at the Cossacks' for a _month _after bringing a prize like that.

"So. You will go home, and stay with Dr. Light, and we will all manage as best we can," Blues summed up, touching Rock's cheek briefly.

Now it was Rock's turn to look sad again. He looked to Roll, but what could they do? He…he didn't want to try to force Blues to go. That was essentially forcing him to be reprogrammed: that was never right. But…

He felt _bad._ He felt like he'd failed, somehow, even though he did what he could think to do.

"You are already doing everything you can. More than could be expected of you. You are a good support unit." A good boy, a good might-have-been-pet, like Rush or Tango. He would have kept this one by his side. The evil overlord list recommended a five-year-old, after all. "If you acknowledge me as a superior unit, then respect my assessment."

Rock didn't exactly flinch, but his deferment could be felt this time. Slowly, reluctantly, he stood up from the concrete floor, dusting his pants off. He looked to Roll, making sure she was ready to go, too. He moved a few feet away, for the teleport, then looked back to Blues again. His face was neutral, content even, though his feelings were still tightly locked. Rock could feel his approval, but nothing about how Blues felt about himself, about his own situation. About being left alone again.

At least he had Tango to keep him company.

He felt Blues hesitate, then crook a finger to summon Rock back to his side. "If you would both open to me, for one moment? That would be... nice."

Roll let herself follow the mental tugs to lean against his left side, as Rock returned to his right. She could feel the hesitation, how strange this was to him now, as he wrapped an arm around each of them, let both of them lean their heads on his shoulders.

It was quiet except for system noises, distant city noises and an old song on the radio. Well, perhaps that wasn't really quiet. Perhaps it only felt that way because they could feel Blues' mind quiet, as he went through all of their memories, not so much watching them as feeling them, gathering that they had been happy, and just sort of... being with them. The two that had been meant to support him, guard him as he did Blues-type things.

Finally, he let them go, and the prompts appeared in their minds again after they stood up, after Tango jumped into his lap.

Roll took a few steps forward, then glanced back at Blues. She raised a hand to cover her open mouth. Seriously? Seriously? He'd just gone to sleep with the two of them there, when they knew his coordinates and were going back to Dr. Light's? That was... That degree of trust, from someone like that, like what she'd felt?

He might not love them, but the idea of his two dear servants, his right and left hands, but still. It was the idea of an older brother that Rock loved, anyway. Even if none of them were those people. It was still a sweet might-have-been. "Let's go, Rock." She looked around. "Rock?" Had he gone straight home, before her? No, he wouldn't have.

Roll turned fully around, extending her scans. Where had he gone? She hadn't even felt him teleport, so then why…? A chill went down her proverbial spine as she glanced back down at Blues. He was still, with Tango curled into a ball. If something was up, then surely he'd…but then where was Rock? Instinctively, she tightened her own defenses, her body tensing as she wished she'd brought her broom.

Nothing moved, in the darkness. "Blues?" She asked, moving closer to him. Had he really deliberately fallen asleep?

His mental response answered that was emotional content alone, but could be summed up with _Sleeping. Tired. Not feeling well—need sleep mode. Wake me and die. _In the imperative, so waking him was no longer an option.

Maybe Rock had just been a good boy and gone home as soon as the prompt came up instead of lingering like her.

Maybe pigs flew. There was somehow something familiar about this, the situation. She'd come up with the idea that Blues hadn't wanted to fall asleep for some reason, but she couldn't put her finger on it. It was still unusually bad timing. Something was screaming at her that this place was not safe, even though her scans were detecting absolutely nothing unusual except the absence of teleport traces.

It was Blues' own fault he'd programmed her to protect him against threats, she decided, picking him up (Tango still on his lap), and teleporting him out with her.


	7. House Call

_Sorry__ about __not__ updating __last__ week,__ but__ there __was __a __death __in __the __family __and __such __things__ tend__ to__ bring__ everything__ else __to__ a__ screeching __halt. Also, the upload for the site got rid of all the spaces between italicized words. I think I got them all, but I apologize in advance if there are words smooshed together. Let me know in PM or review if you see any more.  
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_ We do not own Rockman, Mega Man, or anything. Capcom owns it and we are making no money from it._

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><p>They decided that Dr. Light should be upstairs when Rock woke up with the new changes in case there was anything potentially dangerous to humans hidden in his defenses. He was certain that Roll would be able to help Rock anchor himself and expected it to take a little while: a completely new sense would be quite disorienting and Rock would have to figure out how he'd prefer the data to be processed and organized.<p>

So Dr. Light settled down in the living room with some tea and cookies and began watching old Astro Boy reruns. Rock and Roll were…he thought they enjoyed them, but it sort of felt like that certain aspects of it mystified them, too. He supposed it must be strange to see what people expected robots to be like, even back then. There were a lot of parallels to what was going on in their world with robots. At least all robots weren't portrayed as evil or mindless in the story; that was partly why he'd chosen it to show them when they were still young. It was a show aimed at kids and the themes in it were positive, hopeful.

He just wished there weren't so many parallels, what with Rock having to go out and save the world, fight for it, the same way Astro did.

He'd rather it just be an old cartoon instead of an allegory.

Roll had said that she'd come and get him when Rock woke up and things had been adequately sorted out, for now. She was the one that had fetched the cookies and such, to keep him from having nothing to do but worry. She was very determined to look after him in his old age, and it was hard to insist that he wasn't old and didn't need looking after when all his hair had gone pure white. At least Wily still had some grey in there.

The cookies were good.

Still, though, the house was strangely quiet with both of them downstairs. It was like after Blues disappeared: you really felt that other person's absence. He would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. If Rock woke, and then left to find Blues immediately? Well, Roll did strengthen the teleport barrier in case he did try that. Rock would have to come upstairs and use the door. They wouldn't be able to convince him never to go, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to wait and make a plan, a contingency in case something did go wrong, to ensure his safety if nothing else. Of course, if Blues was determined enough…

If he'd wanted Rock and Roll, he'd have taken them by now. What could he gain by biding his time?

He'd barely finished the first episode when he heard someone. "Roll?" The expression on her face was hard to read: it was 'we definitely have a problem,' but it was clearly one that she was still puzzling over and didn't know what was going on, as opposed to, 'I couldn't keep Rock from leaving!'

"Um..." She hesitated. "Come with me?" There was a bit of implication that he should hurry there, but it didn't seem especially urgent. Or maybe it was, and she just wasn't sure what to do about it.

"Is Rock alright?" he asked, getting up.

"I'm... not sure." She really had no idea. "But... You're going to want to see this."

Dr. Light set his cookies and the remote aside and stood, following Roll…down the hall? Away from the lab? He was frowning, puzzled over how confused she appeared to be. She wasn't sure if he was alright? "Did he crash?" Though no, none of that should have crashed him or even overwhelmed him. Rock's hardware was more than capable of handling the software changes.

_"_No, although he was pretty confused until I linked to him and he used me to calibrate his systems." Rock wasn't the issue, although actually yes, he was, although there wasn't much that she could do about it. It wasn't really practical to storm over to Wily Island and tell him to 'Give me my brother back now, you jerk!' when she didn't even have armor. Anyway, she could probably have Blues go to Wily Island, unless something else had happened to Rock, in which case _he_ could figure it out since it happened when they'd gone to where _he_ invited him, so Rock being kidnapped was the host's responsibility. After he woke up, which she wasn't allowed to do right now, and...

She opened the door to Rock's room.

Dr. Light stopped short in the doorway. He understood now, why Roll was so confused. In Rock's bed was Dr. Light's wayward eldest son. "Blues…?" He was asleep, curled onto his side and it looked like he'd rolled over since being placed there—his trench coat was wrapped around him rather tightly, but he was here? Why? How? And _asleep?_ When he could barely tolerate Dr. Light being within ten feet of him when awake?

"He set up teleports for both of us to go to him after Rock pinged him. Although we both got the final prompt, so we could have refused. We went right through the shields, I don't know how." Teleportation made her hard drive hurt. "We talked, but when he set up teleports for us to leave, Rock just disappeared while neither of us was looking at him, and he definitely hadn't teleported out. Blues had already gone to sleep, and I couldn't just leave him there if someone was kidnapping my brothers." And they'd already got Rock. "Also, he didn't let me wake him up." So it was entirely his own fault and he had no right to complain.

Dr. Light was still staring down at Blues, a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and some relief on his face. So he'd let them come and go willingly…that was good. That was very good. But he didn't know he was here, then, if Roll brought him after he'd gone into sleep mode. "He wouldn't let you? He threaded a command to be left alone?" Before he saw them off safely? That was incongruous… "And Rock disappeared at the same time?" Dr. Light glanced to Roll, looking for affirmation.

Roll nodded. To clarify, she said that, "We arrived when he was doing repairs. On _himself_. His buster." That was just not doing it right, it still annoyed her. He should have someone to take care of him. "He went to sleep right after he dismissed us." Like he was a king and the audience was over. "I was surprised, and when I turned to see what Rock thought, he was gone. I tried waking up Blues, and he command lined me _in__ his __sleep_." It was still insulting.

Dr. Light had to keep himself from laughing. Not at Roll's expense, oh no, but that was just…it was just like Blues. A lot of people thought he was arrogant, unpleasant. Unpredictable.

Well, he _was_. He was programmed that way, to see robots that way. Dr. Light never expected that regard to extend to humanity. It was an undesired side effect and as much as it was wrong for him to try to master humans, too, it was…he regarded humanity as something worth keeping around, something to be looked after, to be helped.

As terrible as Blues wanting to take over the world was, the possibility of him choosing to exterminate humanity was so much worse.

"With his power core instability, he'd need a lot of downtime to keep it calm," especially given that he had a nuclear core rather than a comparably harmless solar core. He'd need a lot of sleep to conserve his strength. Just as a sick human would. Dr. Light would normally just say to let him sleep it off, that he needed it, but if Rock was missing…"Should I try waking him, then?"

Although, that may be a bad idea, too. If he interpreted it as an attack? He didn't think Blues would do anything damaging, but…

He didn't think he'd ever strike Wily, either.

"I don't know. He's not letting me read his status, but while I carried him here, I was picking things up around the edges." Roll didn't want to wait, but, "We might need him to help rescue Rock." Or was she rationalizing? She should definitely value her brother over... her other brother. Rock over Blues. But Blues was here, and clearly sick, and he looked so harmless asleep and unarmored, and Kalinka would never forgive her if anything happened to him.

"What were you able to pick up?" Dr. Light was leaning over Blues a bit, though not hovering. He didn't want to alarm him if he suddenly woke. Putting him in a bed rather than the lab was a good move on Roll's part. If he woke in _Dr.__Light__'__s_ lab, on a lab table…

That would be cruel, even if they didn't do anything to him.

"Practically everything's at least slightly out of alignment." Just carrying him, feeling how everything fit together and moved when she moved had told her that. He really was _very _similar to Rock in structure, even more than Cutman, although larger. "Although he probably just ignores that." Or compensates. "Until it's a problem he can't ignore. And there are minor instabilities in his power. He twitches a bit sometimes, see?" And not just shifting around, balance systems making sure he was comfortable. Roll knew these things from her experience. "I think I was supposed to have access to his status whenever I wanted it, so instead of not even being able to get access, I can get access to the maintenance system and then I'm blocked from reading the data. But there's a lot of activity."

Dr. Light sighed, "He probably hasn't had a proper check-up since he left Dr. Wily during the Third War. He won't let me touch him, and I don't see him letting Dr. Wily close enough to, either. I'd…I'd hoped that he'd at least let Dr. Cossack check him from time to time, but I hear that Cossack's numbers are barely tolerant of him." He could do all of that here, now, while Blues slept, but…

No, that wouldn't be right. He wasn't ripped open, wasn't damaged to the point where he couldn't move. By what he understood of their mentality, of their sense of personal being…it wouldn't be right at all.

"Well, someone needs to do something about his back." Roll took the screwdriver out of her pocket and tapped it on her hand, thinking. "He definitely hasn't worked on that, and someone needs to." It would be practically impossible for him to do it himself. "He's got full articulation, which is why he can pass for human," whose backs weren't straight lines, but complicated S-curves that did a lot of bending over a normal day, "but he's been sleeping on concrete and steel boxes and I don't know what else. He's _got _to be getting constant pain readings from that." Especially since Dr. Light had realized that since the articulated pieces needed to be made of tough metal anyway, threading a wire through them to connect to the legs just made sense, since it would afford a lot of extra protection. However, if those pieces went too far out of alignment, and started to rub the insulation off that wire?

He would have asked her if it was that bad, except for her to say that about _Blues_…she was probably understating it. "I…can keep him offline during maintenance and we can bring him back up here to wake up," to ensure that he wouldn't wake up during the procedure and panic. "But…Roll, you'd know better than I would, how he would feel about that." He looked down to her, his gaze more piercing than before. He really needed an honest evaluation of this.

Because if they were going to send him out to find Rock, it wouldn't be right at all to let him do so in such a poorly maintained condition. He'd probably go out on his own anyway, but…

It was a wonder he could fight as well as he did. The pain should have been debilitating.

"I figure, if he programmed me to look after him without telling anyone, including me, then he has no right to complain if I go and do stuff to him," Roll said, smiling. "Um... Dr. Light?" Now she frowned, thinking. "He said something about a phonograph. And we have one in the lab." She'd never heard it played. "He had a radio with him, an old-style radio. And I think he did because he couldn't take a phonograph around with him. Do you think... Do you think it would scare him, if he heard that, or..." Had he played the radio so he would hear music or voices as he woke up? Had that made wherever he had camped feel more like home?

The phonograph. Dr. Light hadn't turned it on since Blues…since he had to be shut down. Robot Masters were social creatures, but he was traveling alone for the most part, sleeping alone, never making himself even simple robots to assist him. For years. Blues enjoyed music and it was usually him that started the phonograph up, once he got a bit older and became comfortable with himself. Once he was no longer a newbuilt. "No, I don't think it would scare him. Having it on is a good idea, Roll." A familiar sound, a comfortable thing. "I'll get the records."

"I can adjust things and see if they're comfortable then without going deep into his systems." Just opening up the outer plates on his back and then checking the range of motion. "So I'll see how much I can do before he wakes up." Roll's hair was already tied back, so she rolled up her sleeves before pushing for Blues to roll back over so she could get his coat out of the way without having to cut through it.

Dr. Light felt fortunate that he still had the phonograph, that it was still in the living room. That it could be easily heard from Rock's room. It was spotless, of course, and the records were in the cabinet beside it. Trust Roll to keep everything tidy. He knew Blues' taste in music, knew which were his favorites. He didn't want to be the one to do any actual work on him, didn't want Blues to feel as though he'd been violated, but Dr. Light could do at least this much for him.

The records were even arranged alphabetically.

"He relaxed, when he heard it," Roll told Dr. Light when he came back to the room, although he didn't come in past the doorway. "It's a lot easier to work now that everything isn't practically locked in place." Although she was still having to resort to percussive maintenance via her favorite wrench on some of these quasi-vertebrae.

"It's been... How long now?" Dr. Light wondered. And Blues still recognized that phonograph, still remembered those early days. "I suppose none of us are getting any younger." Back pain, even. Dr. Light could sympathize.

The music would continue now and hopefully keep him relaxed enough for Roll to do efficient repairs. Judging from her body language, Blues was worse off than she let on. Dr. Light could only imagine Rock's expression if he saw this. But for him to disappear with no teleport, without walking or running, no nothing? Dr. Light's stomach filled with trepidation: this sort of kidnapping wasn't Wily's style. By now, he'd have called or taken over the TVs or something. He'd be gloating. But who, if not Wily?

He wasn't planning to do to them what he'd done to Dr. Cossack, surely? He didn't really think Wily had it in him to kill Rock, not when he was a helpless, unarmored prisoner.

More helpless than usual, with his firewalls down, with a new sense he wasn't quite used to using. How easy would it be for another robot master to overwhelm him when he was that way? The preprogrammed defenses were so outdated; surely the Wilybots could circumvent them by now.

Dr. Light felt sick.

Roll had started at the base of Blues' back - he must do a lot of turning from there, when he fought - and working her way up to his shoulders. He clearly wasn't designed to carry the additional weight of armor and a shield on his back: at least she and Dr. Light had eventually adjusted Rock a bit, to be able to handle that, even if they didn't want him to have to do it again.

Dr. Wily had done some adjustments to his frame to compensate for the new systems, but it was obvious that most of his concern was with keeping Blues alive long enough to actually fight Rock. The new power core and converting his systems would have taken up a lot of time and energy. They weren't certain at what point Dr. Wily found Blues, but if it was from the second war on? He'd have been making his own robot masters on top of it.

Roll paused. "Um, Dr. Light? Remember those crystals on that asteroid? I was checking to see what wires I'd need to wrap with electrical tape," to replace the insulation, "And this isn't a fusion generator."

Dr. Light stared at Roll. "What kind of generator is it?"

"It's a crystal. It looks just like the one the expedition brought back from the asteroid." The one Dr. Wily had stolen.

"Dr. Wily used one of the crystals on Blues?" Dr. Light actually stepped into the room this time, though he didn't come within an arm's reach of Blues. He used one of those precious energy crystals, but never tried to reclaim it? Or had he, and all efforts were futile?

"I think he thinks Blues is using fusion. They talked about..." Roll's eyes widened. "Dr. Light? What would happen if Blues' power source went out of control because of the three laws when _this_ is his power source?" Weren't these crystals supposed to be full of incredible amounts of energy?

"The potential energy in those crystals far eclipses anything nuclear fusion or fission can produce," even though they hadn't been able to fully analyze it when Wily stole it. "The destructive potential, even for a crystal that size…" There was a reason Dr. Light told Rock that it was for the best that the crystals were lost to outer space. Dr. Light fell silent as something occurred to him, "Of _course_, this is how he's able to move about so freely! Why nothing happened when he slapped Dr. Wily. He's using the crystal, the potential for the explosion, to counter the argument presented by the Three Laws programming. That's why the safety isn't triggering."

"So, the first law can't make him blow up without violating the first law, and the first law overrides everything else." Breaking the second law by disobeying Dr. Light's order to stay in the lab wasn't a big deal compared to breaking the first law by blowing up... Japan? At least, from what Roll remembered.

If Roll cursed, her reaction would probably have been, "_Damn_." Because that was brilliant and utterly cold-blooded.

"Exactly. The first law is written to take things like overall casualties into consideration. I tried to make Blues, and all of you, able to make judgments based on actual morality and not pre-set circumstances," Life was unpredictable that way, "But if he's presenting it with a self-nullifying argument…the first law cannot break the first law any more than you can, and disobeying an order," Or threatening little girls, "is nothing compared to killing millions. He's holding humanity hostage from his own programming." If it blew him up, it'd blow up Japan and probably some of China, too. The second law always defers to the first, too. That was why Blues wasn't forced to let Kalinka go even after Dr. Cossack ordered him to. He didn't let her go until near the end, when the Copy was revealed. Because the other option was to let her be potentially killed, and even if that wasn't a possibility? The first law could do _nothing._

"The conflict in his programming, though," it must be constant, a low-to-high level of _wrongness_. "And I think there's a lag between when the first law gives the order and when the first law vetoes it. That's a _lot _of surge protection." Blues must have done this while hooked up to another power source, the way Roll recharged from the house's electricity when she wasn't in the sun enough to get solar. They had solar panels, anyway. "Still, it can't be easy on his systems."

Dr. Light felt a pang of guilt from that. He should have taken better care of Blues, should have written it better, somehow, even if he was panicked and frightened when he did it. "No, you're right, it's not easy on his systems." He'd begun to show it, even in those first days after the Laws were installed. He'd tried to hide it, hide the pain and the confusion , tried not to look vulnerable, but…looking back on it now, yes. Dr. Light had done the most damage to him of all, hadn't he?

"...I'll do his legs next," Roll said, closing up his back panel. She'd done as much as she could with just hands, basic tools and electrical tape. Would Dr. Light mind if she just pretended she hadn't seen that? She knew that the first law should be yelling at her to defuse the bomb, there were tens of millions of lives at risk, but how could she take away the protection that let him live like that? It was one thing to invade her brother's privacy to help him, it was another to use the implicit trust involved in going to sleep with her there, in not revoking her maintenance permissions, to actually hurt him.

Not to mention that that power source was lasting a _lot_ longer than any solar core could. No: removing the crystal would be a death sentence to Blues in more ways than one. Dr. Light wondered if he'd ever let anyone work on him seriously, in an equipped lab. It was a shame that the Cossackbots tried to keep him away, even if Dr. Cossack and Kalinka were (usually) happy to see him. "Do you want me to fetch you any parts?" From the lab?

"I've got first aid stuff on me." Her wrench, electrical tape, Blues' own screwdriver... Dr. Light would have needed lab equipment to verify that he'd aligned everything correctly, but she could basically just eyeball it and read Blues' comfort level if she needed to. "I don't want to do anything too invasive or complicated." Anything that required lab equipment, or hooking him up to lab equipment, might go over the line. "He doesn't need any major repairs, it's just a whole lot of little stuff." The things that weren't emergencies, until one small problem caused another, and another, as damage built up. The finicky things.

Behind her, Dr. Light nodded; he expected as much. If he had a big problem, Rock would have noticed it when Blues appeared to him during that last encounter with Wily. But still, for him not to keep himself up…wasn't that incredibly strange, especially for a robot master? Well, at least Roll would be able to make him more comfortable. Maybe Rock or Roll could convince him to allow actual maintenance and not quick patchings.

He could hope.

"It's probably hard to align yourself," Roll said charitably. "Since you'd be moving the parts you're trying to align." Or rather, parts connected to those parts. It was still no excuse, but if he was really that afraid, well, he'd probably done a better job with upkeep than Rock would have been able to on his own.

Rock should never be allowed to do his own upkeep, ever.

Dr. Light nodded again, though he wouldn't know: humans didn't operate on themselves as a rule unless they were in a desperate, 'do this or die' sort of situation. But maybe that wasn't the best sort of comparison. Was it more like a human self-medicating rather than seeing a doctor? That might be better. "Is there an indicator in his status about how long he'll be asleep?"

Ugh. Roll realized she may have just messed up. "He's set to sleep when there aren't any immediate emergencies, he's in a secure location and he's comfortable. And I just fixed most of the minor aches and pains that were bugging him. So... He must have an alarm set, right?" To wake up to check if anything had happened every so often. "But I can't look at personal settings like that."

So he could wake up at any second, his panels open for maintenance, with Dr. Light in the room. Well. "I'll be in the living room, if you need me." Hopefully the fact that Dr. Light was in another room, not having anything to do with his maintenance would help.

Roll wished he could stay and help, since it looked like he wished he could, but she had to nod. Maybe, if he wasn't too angry with her over this, it might earn some trust for Dr. Light too, right? That they hadn't done anything.

Even though that crystal... It was a very disturbing thing for him to set up. Was it just to make sure that he stayed alive, or did he really want the world to suffer for his death, if he died?

Dr. Light went back to his armchair, settled back down, but he didn't turn the show back on. Rock was missing, Blues was inexplicably asleep. He felt sick, though he didn't tell Roll. It was an emotional sickness and he didn't want her to worry, not when she had her brothers to worry about right now.

It was rather unlike Roll, to work on someone she considered a jerk when Rock was in trouble. She should have been trying to find some way to get around that command not to wake him up. This was probably something he would want to know about, unless it was his doing in the first place.

Perhaps what made this encounter with Blues so stressful was the _hope_. That this would be a good precedent. That he would be willing to spend more time with his siblings, to come here again, to let Dr. Light try to figure out something that would satisfy the programming's requirements and the world's wish to not be taken over so Blues wouldn't have to use such a deadly, to himself as well as others, preventative measure. Constant evolving sabotage, even if it was then vetoed, of the system restraining a power like that just wasn't _safe_.

The other reason he didn't turn the show back on was that the phonograph: it was nostalgic. He hadn't really been able to listen to it since Blues had fallen that day.

Dr. Light thought his hard drives had been fried. That had been the idea of attacking his power system, after all. It was only when he'd examined Blues' body that he saw that there was surge protection that he knew _he_ hadn't installed. He'd hoped Dr. Wily had just taken the body for parts, until he heard those words and that whistle, but Dr. Wily might have been the one to install that surge protection in the first place, if operating inside his torso was as difficult for a robot master as Roll had implied.

He'd felt guilty about it, even though he knew it had to be done. He knew that he couldn't let Blues continue as he was, couldn't let him obey his programming. He wished he could have given him more leeway, he wished he could have given Blues the option not to obey that directive, but that would have been worse in so many ways. He knew that in the end, he was accountable for all of this. He was accountable for the way Blues was, was accountable for his pain, for everything. He couldn't expect Blues to ever trust him again, couldn't ask him to, but he hoped that at least, he'd be able to trust Rock and Roll, let them help him.

He seemed to, at least on the level of his programming. For now. If they really had been made to help him, instead of Dr. Light? No, that was unfair. 'As well as,' was the proper phrase. He knew that Blues had cared for him then. He just hoped it hadn't only been for the sake of what Dr. Light could do for him. There was a difference between valuable resource and friend. Just like there was between owner and father.

Still, he knew that Blues cared about Rock's well-being. Perhaps he and Roll both weren't as worried about him as they would normally be not because they were worrying about Blues instead and neglecting Rock, but because they knew that whatever else Blues was, he was competent.

No one would kidnap Rock so stealthily if the intent was just to blow him to pieces, and Dr. Light was certain they could get him back from almost anything else, between the three of them.


	8. Reprisal

When the alarm went off he stretched and hummed, pleased when everything moved well and he didn't have any kinks to work out. The range of motion of his left shoulder had been giving him trouble again, but most everything was showing green except his left foot, and since that was locked in place anyway when he wore combat boots it didn't matter.

It was nice to have so many status indicators showing green. It was always annoying, to someone programmed to debug and be the detail-noticing control freak robot needed in order to perfect their programming, to have to look over so many yellow status indicators and have to try to shrug wryly and admit he really couldn't afford to do anything about them.

The amount of time it took to clear his head and fully boot up these days was troubling. He kept seeing fragments of memories related to whatever had happened recently, too. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford to be out of action long enough to do a thorough defragmentation. The last time he'd done that, Wily built the Darkmen. So he just had to try to smile and get through the sound of that phonograph, the sight of Dr. Light's smile. The way the lab had always been set to an optimal temperature, and the bed. The one he'd dismissed as just Dr. Light wanting him to live and be treated like a human until he realized that parts were shipped in protective padding even though they were made out of metal for good reason. He had his coat, which at least kept the particles on the ground off his skin and hopefully out of his systems, but it didn't exactly absorb shocks. The good thing about wearing human shoes was that he had small feet and could wear lots of thick socks, which was excellent when the most expedient method of incapacitating a robot was tearing or kicking off something nonfatal.

Humans liked music because it resonated with their brains, according to their studies. Harmonies satisfying their inner robots that everything was in harmony, status indicators were green, all was right with the universe. He'd had so many ideas for applying that, but that was all in the past, sadly.

Scent was the sense most closely linked to human memory, but for him it was definitely sound. This song he was remembering now, it meant a time when if something was amber, he'd have help fixing it right away. A time when pain had been rare and caused by something fixable instead of his default state and all he could do was try to minimize it.

Perhaps all those green lights were just part of the memory, but it was still pleasant, nostalgic. It made him think of warm hands that he'd _trusted_, felt as though everything was proper and he was in control not because he was in control, but because he'd thought he'd known what Dr. Light would do and it would never be anything detrimental.

He'd thought those innocent days were the default state of existence, and that it would be simple enough to sort everything out, make everything that way.

Ignorance was bliss.

The music continued as he finished booting, continued as his mind cleared and his systems returned that he was fully booted. It sounded a little…not muffled, but it sounded like it was in the next room, a little bit of a ways away. It was nice, though, nostalgic, a song he knew, one that he'd heard hundreds of times over.

This was the kind of music he'd been named after.

He was going to have to debug audio, but he couldn't really bring himself to be annoyed by that at the moment. Instead he just _tugged_, the way he did to let Tango know that he was in a mood where he wouldn't be adverse to petting him while he thought, as he blinked to make sure no dust got on his eyes and stretched again, still humming under his breath.

It probably wasn't a good thing that thinking of might-have-beens affected him this much, that the scars could still bleed (metaphorically), but that meeting had gone much better than he had expected. It was a pity he couldn't do that again, not if it affected him this much. He couldn't afford to be benevolent towards what was his; he had to make Rock strong enough to handle all of this, since it might be the last thing he could do.

It wouldn't do to let Rock think he'd always be there, that his lifespan would be as long as Rock's. Rock needed to learn to stand on his own, to fight with his own power. He'd certainly chosen a troublesome life's pursuit for himself. The pursuit of peace without mastering? Well, many of the Wilybots were…not deferring to Rock, but at least acknowledging him as an equal, treating him with the same respect they'd treat another robot master.

Well, persuading without mastering was what he was built for. It was comforting to know that he'd apparently done good work even back when he hadn't had a clue what he was actually doing. Too late now, he thought, as Tango nudged against his hand and he finally felt ready to open up his mind and start monitoring things. No matter how annoying it was that the first law would bug him about every ignored police report of violence.

Except now that he thought about it, he couldn't hear the highway that ran so close to the warehouse. He couldn't hear the cars at all. His radio wasn't playing, either—the music didn't have that static quality. He couldn't hear the warehouse settling and creaking. All of the usual sounds were gone, even though the ones that took their place were familiar, somehow. Like a far-off memory.

Just Tango's purr, under his hand, and a system that still fit him like hand in glove. His left hand.

Even if he had cared about politeness or mental privacy, he still would have temporarily frozen her and gone through all her memories. Giving his location to Dr. Light? No, bringing him here herself? What? Had he really miscalculated that badly? Had she turned on him just like Dr. Light?

...No, really, she'd done almost exactly what he would have wanted her to, under circumstances like those. Down to tagging the potential bug report she hadn't known she'd made until now with the assessment that any error was a programming error on his part, as opposed to Dr. Light's or a betrayal on her part.

Still, that had been... upsetting. His internal fans were working hard enough that it was almost as though _he _was purring.

"Calm down, ok?" Roll said anxiously, steadying him as he sat up. She would have pulled back, given him some space, but there had been that tug. "You weren't hooked up to any machines, no one went anywhere near your programming."

Except she knew about his power source. Blues might have deleted her memory of that, to spare her the conflict, except she didn't seem to be having any trouble with her version of the laws and that would upset Dr. Light on her behalf. He would have preferred to leave right away, but he knew he needed to stick around at least long enough to see what the damage was. Of course, that was why he had met with the two of them, and look how that had turned out.

Roll was worried. She did not regret fixing him up: no, if anything, he should be ashamed to have let himself get to that condition when there were people willing to genuinely help him. And if none of the human doctors were trustworthy enough, Roll knew that Blues trusted Rock. Rock would have been able to do a better job than Blues could one-handed.

Rock wasn't here. Blues couldn't feel him when he scanned further out, even downstairs into the lab, into the lower levels. Nothing. That wasn't right, he'd told them both to _go__home._

Blues had actually been on his way to feeling touched, and now he was going to have to dial his mode back into cold-hearted bastard. It would be expected by, "Shadow Man." Damn it.

Maybe he would have liked to spend the morning here, with the two of them and Dr. Light, pretending he could have the nice things the way he had last night. Well, avoiding the temptation was probably for the best.

Back to work.

Roll stopped there. "Shadow Man?" What did he…oh, _crap._ "Shadow Man took Rock?" She was puzzled, it wasn't Wily's style to do that and not gloat about it to Dr. Light. Surely by now, they'd have heard from him if he had Rock! But if Wily wasn't gloating, that was much, much worse. That meant he was deviating from his normal pattern, his normal plans. But why now? A war had just ended, shouldn't the Wilybots be building a new Skull Fortress or something?

"Two birds with one stone. It potentially removes both of the major threats to Wily and is easily the best form of vengeance he could manage. Fortunately, he's not stupid enough to install an evil chip and start erasing 'extra' memories. He knows it wouldn't produce the same person." Blues was going through all his pre-combat checks, and it was almost startling how quickly the process was going when he didn't have to give his elbow joint a few shakes to get it to stop being stubborn and figure out what in the way of acrobatics he could manage and what moves he had better not pull in order to avoid straining something.

Roll certainly knew what she was doing.

"Revenge? You mean for that _copy?_ He's taking this out on _Rock?__"_ Roll was outraged. What did Rock ever do to Shadow Man? Even if, even if Rock was an obstacle to Wily, even if Shadow Man wanted revenge for Copy, to take it out on _her__(nice)__brother?_So what, did Forte make him mad, so he decided to just take Rock out of the picture, steal Forte's kill?

Blues ignored her. The real question was, how had he missed Shadow Man's presence? Calling Copy-Rock 'a copy of my favorite thing' while bringing up what had happened: he would _not_have said something like that if he had known the ninja was there. It would have been cruel and Shadow Man would definitely have taken that personally, like an intentional barb. Had Shadow thought Blues was daring him to do something, that the apparent vulnerability was a trap?

Before, Shadow had no way of hurting him other than defeating him in battle (unlikely) or trying to trigger the laws to kill him (undesirable, since the dead could not pay for anything). By saying that he'd valued Rock, as Shadow had almost instantly bonded with Copy-Rock? In hindsight, he'd been asking for it.

Clearly he had not been paying proper attention. The twins had been intended to ensure his defense, yes, but that was no excuse for getting sloppy in their presence when they weren't even tasked with that function. Not in reality. That wasn't how things had turned out. If anything, he needed to be more alert when around Rock, since he needed looking after.

And now Rock was gone.

Roll's field was buzzing with orders to her helpers to be on the lookout for anything out of place. Anything Shadow may have planted. She was agitated now, not quite panicked, but very near it. "We need to tell Dr. Light," she said as she turned to the door.

And how would that possibly be productive, he wondered as he teleported out. Well, he supposed she was preset to link up with/upload data to him for solution sets, so in his absence she might associate that with Dr. Light.

His destination was the rooftop that he and Shadow had watched the Copy die from. He hadn't pointed out that day that Shadow could have rescued him a second time as easily as he had the first. He had stood and watched because he needed to be sure that Rock's reputation, and hence the reputation of their kind, was secure. He had to know what they had seen as well as what the cameras had seen. Shadow Man had stood and watched because he'd respected the Copy's decision. Probably.

Well, if anything, Shadow's hesitation to do what he already knew would work had worked out well for Blues. If the Copy was still out there, people would have associated Rock's appearance with 'might kill me' instead of 'will save me.' Obviously counter-productive.

It was a little surprising that Shadow would take a hostage so dishonorably, but he may have done so because of Wily's orders. But if it was just for revenge and not for duty? He functioned as an assassin, too. It'd take time for Shadow to incapacitate Rock, even without his armor, but with Blues asleep and the child's firewalls down?

He'd essentially handed Rock to him in a basket.

Of course, since Blues had no honor, according to Shadow Man, that meant he wasn't protected by the rules of honorable battle. Rock was, in fact Shadow obviously thought very highly of Rock, given how quickly he'd latched on to a version of Rock he felt he was allowed to like without betraying Dr. Wily. Still, as long as Shadow didn't actually _harm_ Rock, he could make excuses for this behavior.

"I am... only somewhat amused, Shadow Man." Despite all the hypocrisy involved in this. "Well?"

The rooftop seemed to be empty. He must have a long-range sound pick-up trained on it. "Do not keep me waiting." Blues did not have time to waste, not when he didn't know how much he had left.

More silence.

"Show yourself, or I will have to draw you out by doing something really evil." After a pause, leaving him an opening to respond, he said that, "I will _tell__ your__ father__ on __you_." For _starters_.

Kidnapping Rock and intending to return him safe and sound instead of handing him over to Wily? Probably never intending to mention to Wily that he _could _do something like this, if he actually valued the mission over his honor? Shadow deluded himself when he claimed that his honor and loyalty actually overruled his feelings. Such a child.

They all were.

One of the shadows flickered then, seemed to coalesce into something a bit more solid. Shadow stepped out, the remnants of the darkness fading from him in the light, almost like he'd come through a viscous substance. His demeanor this time was similar to right after the Copy perished, though the grief had dissipated and lingering anger, righteous anger, took its place. Though as with any emotional scars, he too could be made to bleed again. "You're in no position to be making threats." He had Rock. Blues did not.

Blues tilted his head to the side, regarding him. He knew that Shadow would consider Blues failing to summon his armor a studied insult. "You've already ruined my first nice morning in over a decade." What more did Shadow want?

"I ruined your _morning?__"_ Oh, was that all Blues had to complain about? It must be nice. Shadow was already angry when he arrived. But now? "How dare you imply that your morning stacks up to the worth of that child's _life_!" He was talking about the Copy now. No, Blues would pay for treating that child's death so nonchalantly. For treating that life, that _support__ unit,_ as though it was worthless, disposable.

"How dare you imply that I'm the one at fault here?" Blues was no longer smiling. "I let you think what you wanted before, since it saved me the trouble of arguing with you and it was harmless. Now, that is no longer the case." Since Shadow was being bothersome. "And you're the one who involved an innocent. Again," he murmured, acting as though he was just now making that connection.

Shadow was unimpressed. "Not at fault? That child was a _copy__ of __Rock._ He had the _same__ attachments._ Even the humans can figure out what happens to a unit that has been _completely __rejected.__"_ What happens when it is made clear that the master has no want of it, no need of it. What happens when it is made clear that there is no place for it, when it is made clear that it is useless. Shadow did not have to have a link open with the child to feel his despair when he screamed. Any robot master with an inkling of sense, of empathy, of understanding would have felt _sick._

"And how did I end up that copy's master? How did I even get involved in the first place? Wily created him. And then he set you to watch him. To take care of him, just long enough for him to get to and kill the real Rock. You said that I orchestrated the scenario that broke his heart: we both know that's not true. You just wanted someone to blame that wasn't you or your liege-lord." How pitiful of him.

Were Blues' audio receptors malfunctioning? "It matters not who was set to look after him, what matters is who that child recognized," _You,_ "And what that master did." Was Blues implying that they wouldn't have taken the Copy in?

Blues stilled. Absolutely, except for his mouth. "Are you saying that having a robot placed in your care means absolutely nothing to you? That _creating_ a robot means nothing to you, or to Dr. Wily? If he regarded the wrong one as his master, then it was your duty to debug him! Your duty to remove his delusions before he committed crimes he would never have, knowing the truth! Before he damaged the unit he thought was his sister! You rescue him, and then you refuse to take responsibility—you just turned him loose. What did you think would happen, after all your years studying Rock?"

"It clearly means more than it does to you, who _throws __robots __away._" He would be doing Rock a favor by removing him from Blues' influence. He hadn't thrown the child away, he'd told him that his life was his own, not Rock's. That he was his own person despite being based off another unit. He hadn't been able to stay long enough to debug him at that moment, not with his orders. It was bad enough that he'd disregarded them long enough to spirit the child away. If Blues hadn't done that, he'd have been calm enough to rationalize, calm enough to wait. Shadow hadn't disowned him, hadn't excommunicated him. If Blues hadn't done that, the child would have been calm enough to _stay __put._

Blues raised an eyebrow. "And you didn't? When you could have saved him from Forte as easily as you did from Cut Man, if you had bothered? And doing so would have been the perfect opportunity to kill Rock, in accordance with your orders. Forte would have done it for you."

Shadow glared at Blues. Well, Forte wouldn't have to do it for him once this was done. If he'd had time to properly debug the child, this wouldn't have happened. Before his cover was blown, debugging him would have ruined it: he'd have been too unRocklike. It'd have been disobedience to Wily and it would have put the child in danger. Even with his cover blown, they'd have kept him. He was a good kid. But because of Rock's memories, he imprinted on Blues, of all people. On _Blues._ No one else could possibly have turned the situation into more of a train wreck. And now this arrogant bastard was telling him this was _his __own__ fault?_

Wily or no, he couldn't let him have Rock again: if he decided Rock wasn't useful and rejected him as he had the Copy? There was no reason to waste that life.

"You know, I was actually feeling generous enough for about thirty seconds this morning to consider offering you a trade. Mine for... also mine. But you had your chance to do right by him before, and then you demonstrated that you still refuse to take responsibility for him." Blues snapped his fingers and a teleport stream appeared in front of him. "Leave the torso intact, the artifact Wily used to give him his powers is in there. How you obtain it is up to you."

Shadow went rigid with shock at the person that appeared.

"Remember when I said that I wasn't in absolute control of the situation, so it was wrong to blame for Wily's and your own actions? That I wasn't God, that I don't have absolute power over life and death, and all of you aren't just my puppets. Well." Blues smirked. "Apparently I lied. Copy. Obtain what I need to recover the other 001 unit."

"Yes, Blues!" Copy almost chirped.


	9. Even Exchange

If Shadow thought that Blues might have a shred of something redeemable left in him before this, he was certain there was nothing now. "A trade? I will take them both." He was _furious_. Letting him, letting all of them think that this child was dead, then mocking him for it? Twisting this child to stand against him? He would not permit it.

Blues looked down at his foot, turning his ankle from side to side. "Since I'm no longer needed here until you obtain the part, I think I'm going to get this fixed while the offer is still open." He considered referring to it as the equivalent of a foot massage, but Shadow making a big dramatic production out of everything was just not amusing today, not compared to actually having a nice day and the prospect of temporarily not being in pain. "Do you think I'll go soft if I just take one day off?" he wondered aloud.

Shadow didn't respond to Blues: all the better if he wanted to leave. He'd be at more of an advantage if Blues didn't take part. As much as he wanted Blues to admit he was wrong, to understand the pain he'd put others through, Shadow knew that getting this child _away __fro __him_ was far more important.

The child had turned to him, concerned. "You're still hurting?"

"It's fine, Roll will take care of it."

"You're finally talking to them again?" Copy was delighted, then he frowned, sad.

"Don't be silly, you're still _a _brother. And your programming still fits with hers, so you're a _twin_ as well as another sibling." Blues sat down on the rim around the roof and took his boot off, then started removing socks.

"But that's good, isn't it? That you're taking a break." That he could take a break, because Copy was handling this.

"I didn't ask you. I haven't had a chance to examine how the evil chip interfaces with the original augmented ethical analysis programming. I already said I was suspending you from duty as my conscience peripheral until I found time for that." Blues paused. "Shoulder devil?" To Rock's shoulder angel. "I never seriously considered killing them all." Mind control was much less messy.

Shadow felt a prickle of jealousy, and he knew that that was probably part of Blues' calculations. But still: what the hell? He flat-out rejected the child, why was he here, working for Blues? How was he even alive? Had Blues altered his memory, locked parts? Or was this child so desperate for his approval that it did not matter what he'd said or done before?

And what was with all the socks? Seriously! Humans wore one pair, maybe two if they were cold. And they were filthy! It was true that robots do not sweat, they don't have biological parts, so there was nowhere for bacteria to grow and make clothing stale, but it was still decent to keep up a clean appearance!

"You know, Roll likes buying clothes for people." And she wouldn't mind tossing a few more things in the laundry.

"Yes, shoulder devil. You're advising me to take advantage of tempting luxuries like not having to spend over an hour and a half trying not to be identified as a robot while making sure the humans don't steal my clothes." Blues sighed. "My radio is probably already gone." Roll hadn't even turned it off before she left. "The parts I don't mind so much, since I'll be making sure she replaces them." And his toolbox.

New tools were nice.

Shadow had crossed his arms by now, observing the two of them, gathering data. The eye that transmitted to Wily was still closed, but he needed the data for his own purposes. But seriously…what the _hell?_ How could this be?

Part of him was expecting this to be another trap. It was certainly another layer of manipulation. Now he was thinking that Blues was completely insincere about that trade.

It'd serve him right if Shadow just left without even showing him Rock.

Well, it wasn't as though Blues was living a life of luxury, at any rate. Shadow was in Rock's shadow during the last encounter with Dr. Wily, he'd been monitoring the child since he ran into the room with the fake Dr. Light. It was easy to slip into his shadow there, where Blues couldn't see. When Blues was so desperate to leave.

He'd dared to raise a hand to Dr. Wily. Twice, even. What was amazing was why he'd done it. It wasn't to display superiority, it was out of _anger._ Anger that Dr. Wily mentioned that he and Rock were brothers. He'd never seen Blues get upset about anything before. Ever. To think that that cold-hearted bastard had a weak point.

He'd been in Rock's shadow since then, watching, waiting. He'd seen the Cossacks' house and he had to give the Cossack girl credit: she was resourceful. The Wilybots all relied highly on networking (for obvious reasons), and they couldn't exactly waltz into human libraries (not during open hours). To think that humans retained that much on paper. Part of his systems dismissed it as inefficient: digital data was more compact and never degraded. But computer data could be corrupted so easily.

Yes, that girl was impressive, even if it was a shrine dedicated to her puppy love. It was more information than any of the other bots had managed to compile on him in nearly a decade.

The Cossacks had room for him, they meant well, and yet the Eldest was living like a homeless human in a degraded warehouse, hiding in the dark. Letting himself fall to disrepair.

Even Dr. Light would have him. It's not like he didn't have places to go.

That was purely idiotic. To force himself to live that way was just…

Blues probably needed a lot of debugging, too.

But what Dr. Light had said... Dr. Wily would never do that to any of them. He'd let the fifth numbers be young idiots and the sixth numbers go home, since apparently they were insane enough to not resent being used for gladiatorial games. Blues had been betrayed, and while that was no excuse for betraying others, it did explain his paranoia. He lived like a shadow, in the shadows, the abandoned places of the humans' cities. Unless that had been a setup. A scene meant to evoke pity from the Lightbots.

He doubted it, somehow. Still, if he had Copy-Rock as a support unit, why had his status been so poor?

His status was like that when Shadow Man had Dr. Wily doing his upkeep, and he'd still dodged Shadow Man without a trace of effort that day. While surely in great pain, given how many humans the Copy had injured or killed as he simply watched.

He left himself in such disrepair, wouldn't even let the robots beneath him help him: Roll had to ignore his command and force the repair. Poor Rock was left to stand there, still unsure, still uneasy.

Blues should be ashamed.

The copy shouldn't have half-knelt on the edge of the roof next to him, clearly wanting to do that for him, to be with him. Of course, he had Rock's memories of a family, and now there was just Blues.

The way he'd been alone, without anyone, after Blues and Shadow Man confirmed that it was all true. After Shadow Man left, and even the Wily Army apparently didn't want him. He... should not have given him that impression.

It was the wrong impression, the wrong message to send, even if he didn't realize he was sending it at the time.

He just wanted the kid to understand that he was a _person._ He should have incapacitated him, hidden him until he could take a look at him, debug him.

Instead, Blues pushed him to kill himself, and now?

Except Blues hadn't done anything except watch, after Shadow had left him. Watch and save him, apparently, while Shadow had just stood there, and observed. He'd felt as though it was wrong to remove his choice, keep him from dying an honorable death for the sake of his family. He'd thought that doing nothing was the least he could do... and then railed at another for seeming to do the exact same thing.

Hypocritical. As much as he hated to admit it.

This at least solidified that there was no trade. Smoke and mirrors, of course. They were both plenty acquainted with _that_ strategy.

Because how could Blues bear to give him up? It would be like giving up Jiraya, even if this was a copy of Jiraya and he could have the original Jiraya back... would it be greedy of him, to want two Jirayas? Two robots perfectly calibrated to work with him? Designed from the electrons up to be his?

That actually wasn't a bad idea.

_This__ is __what __you __could __have __had_, Shadow thinks, and then realizes he would never think of himself in the second person like that. _Would __you __like __him __to __plead __with __you __to__ bring __the __other __back __without __a__ fight? __He__ never __will __like __fighting __his __own __kind __when __there __is __an __alternative_. It was in the base program. _The __way __he __pleaded __with __you __to __give __him__ a__ reason __to __live, __to __give __him__ direction __when __he__ could __not __perform__ what __he__thought __were __his__ true __tasks_?

Inwardly, Shadow sighed. No, he did not particularly want to make the child beg him. _The__ same __way__ you__ gave__ Rock__ direction__ after__ he__ found__ out__ what__ you__ were__ to __him?_ I saw you, make no mistake. I saw how you left. _He__ cried__ for __a__ long __time __after __you __fled._ Once he saw Dr. Light.

Blues had effectively disarmed him by bringing this child here.

Right now, the copy was turning those pleading eyes on Blues. "Blues, please. Why won't you let me help? I could watch the laundry for you, or do it myself, even if Skull can't pass for human."

"Because I can't torment either of us like that. I am unable to fulfill my function: you shouldn't have to feel that way. I can't take care of a 001 model properly, otherwise I would have been far too tempted to steal the prototype. At least that has worked out for the best." He glanced over at Shadow Man, who was going to _put__Rock__back_.

It was actually rather cutting, that the child was paying him no mind. But he was engaged with Blues. At least he was happy. Shadow reached out with one arm, making a quick gesture as a shadow in the back corner in the roof solidified for an instant, then faded away to reveal a very unconscious Rock. He was still in the street clothes Shadow nabbed him in. It'd been very, very easy.

When the Copy saw that, his shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry."

"Whatever for?" Blues wondered, trying to move a toe manually without breaking anything when it wouldn't wiggle.

"I wasn't any help. I didn't get to fight for you, and now Dr. Wily might find out what you can do."

Blues just shrugged: Wily already had his own theories. "As I told Rock, it's not your fault you can't act as a proper support unit to me. However." He looked directly at Shadow.

Copy-Rock followed his gaze. "No!" Please don't make me? "He, he took me away from there just on a whim! He knew everything all along, and he just told me like that, and said it would be interesting to watch!" It was all just some show to him! "He's one of Dr. Wily's and he shot at the poor baby that just wanted to get back to its mother!"

"So did your series prototype, when he didn't know what was going on," Blues pointed out. "Shadow didn't know at the time, either."

"I'll just go back to sleep. You don't need to find someone to adopt me. I'm not a stray dog." Even if he looked like such a sad puppy.

What? He'd been keeping him in _sleep __mode?_ Shadow stared at Blues this time, appalled. "You've kept him in a _prolonged __shutdown __state?__"_ His status broadcast his disgust, just in case they missed it in the tone of his voice.

"Hibernation, technically," Blues corrected him. "He was suicidal: it's beneficial. His system needed some time to resolve the contradictions caused by the presence of the evil chip in an augmented ethical analysis system." He raised an eyebrow again. "It's not as though I had a home to take him to. A model 001 shouldn't live like _that_." Tango liked it, but Tango was a cat.

Blues should have handed him over to begin with. Shadow's stare communicated his thoughts quite well. While, yes, hibernation could correct some things, help stabilize the unit, being around other robot masters would be massively more beneficial.

"And then they would have known he survived, and asked _questions_." Which Blues did not like and could not adequately deal with at the moment. "The first requirement if you want to adopt him, or even keep your memories of this conversation, is that you will not tell Dr. Wily that he survived. Or that your new friend is Copy-Rock at all. Just another sad case of a robot master mistreated by their creator, which would explain his attitude towards humanity and his jaded attitude in general." Generally robot masters were far more idealistic, children that they were. Copy was young, but he had the memories of the second oldest and a very different take on them.

Well, _that_ was a given. The Wilybots did plenty that Dr. Wily was unaware of. He had his business; they had theirs. Shadow wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to let one of_his_ fall into these wars, not when it would be so detrimental to them. Especially not a traumatized one. "And the second requirement?"

"You will not use him to impersonate Rock. His reputation _needs _to stay untarnished, for the sake of the survival of our species. The third is that you will care for him adequately. I was hoping that you would have the honor to admit to yourself how badly you acted last time, and swear to recover your honor by doing it _right. _However, if you still refuse to admit your faults, I will have to find another home for him."

"But..."

"Hush," Blues ordered sternly. "Don't argue about your needs with a superior model, the one that programmed your source code."

Copy shut up and lowered his gaze apologetically.

Shadow nodded. Incensed as he was with Blues' actions regarding the child, he now realized that he hadn't made the best decisions, either. Second chances were precious and rare.

"If Wily isn't finding out about him," and he isn't, "Then there will be no reason for him to impersonate another individual." Again: no wartime participation. "I understand your points about my behavior. I…did not make the best decisions," Particularly with how he'd regarded him upon dropping him off. "There will be no lack in guidance this time around."

"Fourth, you will make a formal apology and pay proper attention to the unit's guidance." Since it was programmed to function as a conscience, an advisor, "I'm not saying to obey him in everything, mostly because the evil chip did very odd things to the programming I originally gave the model type, but pay attention. You're aware that he has all of Rock's skills and knowledge up to a certain point." When they had been superior to Shadow's own. "And he also has... hidden talents, most of which are currently unavailable." To be unlocked by a model 002 type, code words, necessity or other factors. "You will accept his _support_, he is a support unit, after all." He needed to feel that he was doing his job.

To be cowed so by another unit may have incensed some of the other Wilybots. Forte would have begun shooting the second the Copy appeared before him. Forte was simpleminded that way: if anything displeased, confused, or hindered him, he shot at it. He got angry before anything else and rarely thought things through. He was getting better as he grew, at least.

Shadow did have his honor and dignity to consider, but he wanted the Copy more and none of what Blues was saying was wrong, per se. None of it was unreasonable, even if he was making Shadow eat crow.

No, Forte would not have been able to deal well with this at all.

Shadow bowed his head in assent and moved to kneel down in front of the Copy, to be at eye level with him. It was a motion of sincerity; he wouldn't link until custody had been granted.

The Copy was anxious enough as it was. Passing hands was never easy on a support unit. Really, if Shadow thought about it, an apology would have come, Blues' request or no. He really was sorry, sorry that things had gone as they had, sorry that he hadn't done more. Sorry that the Copy had to endure that kind of pain.

Honestly, even though they had no choice to obey, sometimes he and his brothers were sickened by Wily's schemes. Really, taking a young unit like that, making it expendable, making it nothing? It was instinctive to go to the elder ones for advice, and even though he hadn't for this, he knew what the second numbers would have said.

They would have told him to do what Blues did. They would have advised him to follow his orders, but to conserve the unit. That wouldn't have been against the orders. They could have slipped the child under Wily's radar after that, put him somewhere safe.

It was his own inexperience that caused him to assume the child would be fine alone for any length of time.

"I am sorry. I...should not have left you to your own devices." I should have looked after you, orders or no. Blues was right: even if the Copy hadn't recognized him as the master, it was still his responsibility. That realization was the most upsetting of all: he'd completely failed this child.

The Copy looked hesitant, then looked at Blues. "You won't really be leaving my service, you know," Blues reminded him. All their race was his, so he would simply be serving Blues through Shadow, if that thought made him feel better.

Shadow remained patiently kneeling, waiting for the child's response. He didn't even look at Blues again.

"What about Skull Man? He'll be lonely."

"Mmm... I suppose I can call it an early birthday gift. I'll have to remodel him, though. He's too recognizable." As Dr. Cossack's worst nightmare, for one thing. "I wonder if I can wear out my welcome by stealing parts..." Or if it would be forgiven.

Now Shadow had to wonder if Blues just wanted to keep him kneeling, if that was why it was taking this long. He wouldn't put it past him.

Or if the Copy was ignoring him, hoping he'd go away and Blues would let it happen if he kept him busy with puppy-dog eyes.

Stalling, because he was quite unsure about the entire ordeal.

Shadow turned his gaze back to Blues, his stare quite pointed. Skull Man had nothing to do with Shadow.

Blues drew the Copy close enough to kiss his forehead, then pushed him gently back. "Stop stalling."

The child trembled, looking at Blues with wide, anxious eyes. He looked back at Shadow. With his firewalls down, the child was transparent to scans, easy to read. He was beginning to panic. "But Blues…" His voice was pleading. _Please, __don__'__t __give __me __away._ _I__ can__ be__ of__ use__ to __you._ His emotions were spiking, like they had when Blues told him he was a Copy, when he found out that he didn't have a place in the world.

He wanted to help, but he didn't want to be _given __away_. His breath hitched as he began to cry.

Shadow was the one to move forward. It was simple enough to slip into the child's mind, to calm and reassure him. Even if the crying didn't stop right away, he could feel that it was helping. He drew the child over to him, both mental and physical pulls, comforting, reassuring. Something stable. Shadow was not a bad person. He let the child feel around in his own systems as he reached down to pick him up. The 001 line really was a small model, but they'd been made to function as dependents, as children, so it made sense.

With one final glance at Blues, Shadow stepped back, the Copy in his arms, as both of them shimmered and melded in with the shadows again.

Blues considered grabbing Shadow and telling him to get back here so Copy wouldn't shoot him for taking him away before Copy was fine with it, but he could wait until Copy came out of the shadows to be reassured (again) that he wasn't being given away, and that making sure Shadow took proper care of Wily was plenty useful.

Shadow left the path open (to the Copy), waiting somewhat patiently even though he thought prolonging good-byes was more detrimental. Something like that should be gotten over with. The less the kid wallowed, the better off he'd be.

"_I'm__ sorry: __this__ is__ as__ close__ as__ I__ can__ give__ you__ to__ ideal __conditions,__ what__ you__ were__ built__ for.__ You'll__ have__ Shadow__ and__ Dr.__Wily__ to __manage,__ even__ if__ you __won't __have __a__ partnered __002__-__-I'll __see __what __I__ can __do __about __that,"_since Wily made those Roll copies, even if they didn't have her memories or exact programming. "_Remember, __you __will __still __be__ in__ my __service__-__consider __yourself __assigned__ to__ support __Shadow__ in__ taking__care__of__Wily.__ All__ robot __masters__ are __mine, __after__ all."_ So this wasn't giving him away: he'd still belong to Blues.

The Copy relaxed, nodded, though he still wasn't entirely happy with the arrangement. He, like Rock, wanted to stay with Blues. Except Rock had Dr. Light, too, so it was more like Rock wanted Blues to stay with them.

In the interests of full disclosure, he would have explained that to Shadow, but Shadow had left before reading the fine print, so it was his own fault, and Blues hit his limit on how much explaining he could tolerate for the day anyway. Even if it _was_ a nice day.

The toe was bugging him, but that was mostly because it was the one non-functioning thing on that section of the board. So if he got it fixed, everything in that category would be working perfectly and that appealed to him. Yes, he was in danger of going soft, tempted by an orderly existence, but taking advantage of the spoils of victory for _one_day couldn't really hurt anything. Provided Dr. Light kept his hands off of him. It would be a pity to accidentally punch his head off.

That would make Rock sad, though. He hadn't moved the entire time and his status indicated he was snuggly and sleepy and probably very thoroughly drugged by Shadow. Well, keeping him asleep was a good way to keep him from breaking out or hurting himself while trying to.

Shadow knew better than to underestimate Rock, after all. It would probably take a considerable amount of time for it to clear out of his systems. Hmm, tempting... This would be the perfect time to go through and make any changes and updates he liked.

Especially considering that Rock's field was enabled, which was surprising in itself. He must have requested it of Dr. Light because there was no way he'd have done it for Rock: it was too dangerous. Well, it'd be too dangerous if he didn't get any updates to patch his security.

Blues would have to put the firewall back in place, though. Most robot masters had never met a 001's field, other than Forte's, and Forte had a firewall that Wily had designed to be the equivalent of an instant-death-spike wall. So he didn't exactly evoke the same 'Aww, I want to take it home with me to be my second pair of hands!' response.

Many of the Wilybots hadn't quite realized that they were so reluctant to fight Rock a second time because he was designed to be someone you didn't want to fight. It was like kicking a puppy. Only terrible people want to do that. Except this puppy had a buster.

That was even cuter.

Especially to Wilybots.

Blues dropped to one knee next to Rock and carefully connected to his system to do a scan.

Not carefully enough, it seemed.

Actually, he hoped Shadowman was taping this, he thought as he fell asleep. It might mollify him and make him less likely to cause trouble in the future.

Shadow smirked from where he was still concealed. Blues could usually sense him when he was nearby, but he was experimenting with different ways to conceal. Of course, if the older 'bot was distracted, if his mind was occupied as it was when Rock was taken, it was much easier to slip in.

But for Blues to fall asleep, drugged by what was in Rock's systems not once but twice? He'd thought better of Blues. Or perhaps he'd stumbled across a genuine vulnerability. Not that it'd always be this easy: Blues was adaptable, more so than most. It would not be so easy to corner him again and again. Especially if he associated Rock with that weakness.

Valuable data. Blues could have pitched himself to fall away from Rock, but Shadow noted that he'd leaned forward so that his body would cover the younger robot protectively. Blues' trench coat even billowed out some, blanketing them both. It shouldn't surprise him anymore, but it did. Seeing Blues actually behave with care toward another, seeing him genuinely give a damn?

Maybe he had been made to worry, after all. Served him right.

Copy leaned against Shadow's side and smiled, because it was sweet. That was what he was supposed to have, and he wasn't really jealous. Not when Blues had made him a new body and his prototype wasn't even getting to be awake for this. Also, Shadow was already meant to be a bodyguard, right? So it shouldn't be hard to make him do things like that. Not that Copy would need it that often. He wasn't as trusting as his prototype, he wouldn't go around without armor like that. He'd cause Blues far less trouble.

Shadow placed a hand on the Copy's head, let the child cuddle him. His affection reminded him of Jiraya, though he was more physically demonstrative of it. Not that Shadow really minded. He'd only mind it if he was fighting, but if he were doing that, the Copy wouldn't be there anyway.

Copy wasn't a good name for this child, he thought. He shouldn't be known as a Copy, as a replication. Along with an armor remodel and perhaps an eye color change, he should ask the child what he wanted to be called. Let him decide on his own identity.

So long as it wasn't ridiculous, like Geminiman.

"We should take them home. Roll must be worried." Copy frowned. "Can you get them in without Roll attacking you? I'm worried that she'll identify me, like this." With his firewalls down. "She's the 002 model, after all." And his sister.

Shadow nodded slowly. As much as he'd rather just leave them there, the Copy was doing an impressive job of giving Shadow the saddest, most worried face he could manage. If Roll did sense him, that'd be a headache, although he'd be able to slip out so long as she didn't get past his firewalls. He wouldn't be there long enough for that, hopefully. He'd heard stories about her broom and he didn't want to quantify them.

"I want you to stay concealed, she _will_ sense you if you step out." Especially with his broadcast state so wide open. They'd need to take care of that, too. Unlike Blues, Shadow did have the resources to do so immediately despite the fact that Dr. Wily wouldn't be involved.

The human media portrayed the Wilybots as being cruel and heartless. They did look after their own, however, and the Copy was theirs now.

In fact, he might need to make it clear that Copy was _his_instead of _theirs_. That new seventh number Shade Man would be curious, stick his big nose in to Shadow's business.

He wondered if he was so insistent and annoying when he was that young. He didn't remember any of the second numbers seeming annoyed with him, but…well, the humans had a saying that you looked at the past through rose-tinted lenses.

It didn't really apply when your memory was digital, but the sentiment was the same.

He stepped from the shadows, solidifying in an instant. He wasn't going to try to link to either of them: even if their firewalls wouldn't try to rip his throat out, he really didn't want to get that intimate with Blues, and their link may still be connected.

With a sigh, he pushed Blues into a slightly more upright position and scooped Rock up with one arm. At least a unit this size was portable. Blues was larger (though still smaller than most other robot masters), but Shadow was able to lean down slightly and heft Blues up over one shoulder.

He was glad he wasn't human, glad that his arms wouldn't get tired, that his parts wouldn't strain from their weight. It helped that neither was in armor. They weren't heavy, just bulky.

His ability let him move around quickly as a teleport, but it was far more difficult to sense or trace. There were dark corners in any human home and the Light residence was no different. The trick was finding a suitable room that was far enough from Roll so as not to alert her.

Blues' sunglasses fell off when he turned him over again to lay him down. If it weren't for Kalinka's book, he wouldn't have known what color his eyes were. Unless Dr. Wily had changed them? Or he'd changed them himself. Shadow didn't know which he liked less, the idea of Blues' eyes being blue, like Rock's, or red, like a true Wilybot's.

The Lightbots could keep him.

He settled Rock in next to Blues and placed the sunglasses on the nightstand, where any shifting wouldn't crush them. The second he was settled, Rock turned and curled toward Blues in his sleep.

It was cute, even though Shadow didn't want to admit it.

He didn't want to linger, either: he really didn't want to deal with Dr. Light or Roll. Drugging the doctor would be easy. Roll would be harder, but why waste the good stuff when he didn't need to use it?

He wanted to get the Copy home and settled, too.


	10. Status Quo

_Alright, this is the last chapter of Status Quo, unless we decide to do little add on/fluff type chapters. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it._

_Also, Mega Man does not belong to us, it belongs to Capcom. _

* * *

><p>When Roll carefully peered around the door to Rock's room, frying pan at the ready, she had to go, "Awww..." Blues didn't look as cool without his sunglasses, but he looked far more vulnerable, and even cuter asleep than he already had.<p>

Kalinka was right: Dr. Light designed him to be good-looking. It made sense, though. Humans were more receptive to those they found attractive. And Dr. Light wanted Blues to have as easy a time as he could.

If Rock were a human boy, he'd be able to expect to look very similar to Blues after several years. It made Roll wonder what she'd look like, had she been made to look older.

Though for a robot maid in Japan, that entire topic was touchy. Humans were _strange._

Kalinka would just _die_, in a fortunately metaphorical way, when Roll gave her this file. Roll took care to save a high-resolution image.

There was no sign of trouble, thankfully. Both Rock and Blues were inexplicably asleep, but neither was hurt and their statuses showed green except that they were both very, very tired. At least Shadow Man brought them home unharmed. It made her wonder what happened. If they'd fought, then Shadow would have been too damaged to drop them off. If he'd won, it was doubtful that Rock would be back here.

It made her wary. Her general broadcast state was a very, very suspicious "Blues, what did you _do?__"_ To poor Shadow.

There was no response from Blues' systems other than an automatic repair request time-stamped around ten minutes ago.

He had oddly small feet. Rocks' feet weren't much smaller. Of course, wasn't foot size supposed to have something to do with how tall animals were going to get? Puppies had big feet relative to their bodies. Blues hadn't been intended to ever grow any larger than this, or age at all.

Was _every __single __portion_ of his body in some degree of disrepair? Granted, none of these were dire concerns, none of these were real injuries. They were minor inconveniences, minor pains. But didn't all of that minor pain add up? How could he stand living like that?

It'd have made her sad if it didn't make her so _mad._

His only care for himself seemed to be that he kept functioning, kept fulfilling whatever he could of his function as long as he could. Standard of living must come second to _continuation_of living. Still, he hadn't needed to make those trade-offs, and it was so unnatural to them. To him as well, clearly, since instead of tightening his security his system was now almost eager to give her bug reports, and she could feel what a relief it was when they were all resolved, when everything was nicely under control once again.

By comparison, Rock's error in his sleep mode regulation system... The contagious error that had spread to Blues and was barely a programming error at all... Wow, that was clever of Shadow.

Blues' system immediately prioritized any request for sleep mode because of how much his systems needed it by default, in this state. If Shadow had tried to use any other means to incapacitate him, any other system hack, it would have been checked over. Instead, the reaction to the cracked prompt, _Sleep __mode__ y/y? _Had been _Y_, automatically.

That also explained how he'd fallen asleep so abruptly earlier: his systems picked up the hack from Rock and was immediately shut down. If she'd been able to link to him while he was in sleep mode, it may have hit her, too. He had such things automatically disabled while sleeping, though. Most robot masters did: that wasn't something you wanted uninvited guests in.

She should make sure Dr. Light saw this before either of them woke up, Roll knew, so she went to go get him.

It was a relief to see them both home safe. He wasn't surprised when Blues took off without acknowledging him, but Dr. Light was still happy to see his oldest safe and sound. It was doubly a relief that Blues didn't intend to act upon their underlying programming, didn't seem to intend to take the twins. Because he could have, very easily, and by robot master logic, he had every right to.

And there wouldn't be a thing Dr. Light could do about it.

Rock looked so sweet like this, and Blues seemed like almost a gentle protector. "He would link to both of you like that, to work on you, sometimes. I thought he was simply lonely, since I had sent off all the other prototype robots to have their programs and designs used for mass production."

That was…it must have been hard for Blues, especially in those early days. Being the only sentient robot, the only one of his kind for so long. Had she and Rock been born of his need for companionship? His need for someone who wouldn't leave for long periods on industrial jobs?

She tried to imagine what it would be like if Rock went out for weeks, sometimes months on end the way Cut and them did.

No, she wouldn't enjoy that at all.

It was like coming home for the first time in years. Like slipping on a pair of well-worn shoes, or curling up on your place on the couch. Like returning to your own bed after a long trip. It just felt like everything was right with the world, like you were in your own place, the place where you were not just welcomed, but where you _belonged._

Rock shifted slightly as he came around. He was somewhere soft—his bed?—and there was something warm next to him. It was an optimal temperature. It was nice.

He realized where that warm, affectionate, nostalgic feeling was coming from when his system finished its checks. His systems went through his to-do list while he slept, taking care of anything that could be done internally. They returned with memories from a compressed folder. Memories of being a new unit, barely any online time at all. Memories of being greeted, comforted, guided by an older system. The system he was made for. Being linked this way…he'd felt this mind many, many times before. His systems were configured to work well linked this way, configured to work under this mind's guidance, configured to offer input back.

This was more at home than he'd been in _years._ It was like returning to Dr. Light's after a war. Home in body and now, home in spirit. He just laid there, enjoying it, letting the feeling pass through him, fill him. Relaxing didn't even begin to cover it. Saying that it was nice didn't do it justice.

It almost made him want to slip back into sleep mode.

Or pretend that he hadn't woken up so that he could lie here, hearing the soft whirr of a fan that wasn't his own, this music he'd never heard outside of those compressed memories, except for the echo of it in Blues' whistle.

He wanted to nudge at Blues, but he knew that once Blues was awake, he could leave. Or tell Rock to leave, since hadn't Rock been supposed to leave? But it had been so peaceful, there with Blues, as he'd started to remember this, and he hadn't really wanted to leave, so when he'd started to fall asleep...

He should thank Roll for letting him sleep all this time, letting him stay here with Blues. Dr. Light must be so worried, too!

But if Roll let him stay, then Dr. Light would know he was okay, that he would return soon. Unless he thought that Blues made Rock stay. But no, he'd have made them both stay if he was going to keep them. Dr. Light would realize that.

Still, he didn't want to worry Dr. Light, but this was _so __rare_ and Rock really didn't think that Blues would permit it again, lonely as he was. Blues felt that keeping everyone at arm's length protected them, somehow. It was never about Blues, Rock realized. He couldn't feel much about Blues' thoughts, even linked this way, and he didn't want to wake him by feeling around too much, but at least he could feel his contentment. That he was comfortable and also rather pleased. Almost smug about…something.

Rock shifted a little, and um? These were his linen sheets with the rocket ships on them. Thick sheets weren't a good idea for robot masters, since they could overheat unless you were somewhere really cold. Roll had refused to say where she found these, with the low thread count and the design. He almost wondered if she'd made them herself, or at least printed the design on.

They were back at Dr. Light's? Blues was here? Rock felt a spike of hope: had he agreed to come back, but his more logical side, the part of him that knew Blues, knew that this wouldn't last. Did Blues even know he was here? But how could he have come if he didn't know? Confused, Rock's anxiety level began to rise as he shifted, though not too much, he didn't want to disturb his brother (he looked like he could really use the sleep.) No, Rock wasn't hurt, Blues' status was good, so why were they here?

How did they get here?

Blues whistled a bit in his ear, softly, and he automatically calmed and stopped moving.

There was an underlying command in that gesture, a reassurance that all was well, that there was no danger, no reason to panic. If Rock had that sort of context to compare it to, it may have reminded him how a parent calms a child that just woke from a nightmare.

As it was, he just relaxed in place, snuggling down. It couldn't hurt to nod off again, could it?

There were some things in his systems that needed sorting out, on top of all this now-unlocked memory data to analyze. They were very nice memories to look at while lying in bed, seeing Dr. Light and Blues work on him the way he and Dr. Light worked on X. The new addition to the family, the little brother.

He wondered if Blues ever looked back on memories like these, or if it was too painful. He kept so much of his mind locked away, even when linked this way, it was impossible to tell. Rock hoped not. Rock hoped there were happy memories for Blues, ones that didn't trigger painful memories.

He wanted to share them with Blues, wanted Blues to show him what he had felt, back then.

He hoped that Blues would be okay with that, would be willing to share some of his memories, some of his feelings. He squirmed slightly. He wanted to ask right now, but Blues needed to sleep and really, Rock should just go over his own systems, his own memories until his brother woke.

Unless Blues left immediately. That thought was upsetting.

"Roll?" he whispered. When there wasn't any response, he remembered that he could use wireless to communicate far more effectively now, and tried that. "_Roll?_"

_"__You__'__re__awake,__"_ It was more of a greeting than an observation, though there was an undercurrent of relief. But why would she need to feel relieved? She seriously couldn't think that Blues did something to him, could she?

"_Shadow,__not__Blues,_" she corrected him. "_He __drugged __you,"_it wasn't technically drugging, but that was what they'd called what Shadow did to Rock when they'd fought, how it affected him when he was hit. "_And__ it __affected__ Blues.__Twice._"

_"…__What?__"_ Shadow? But why? It…really? _Shadow?_ He'd have expected one of the newer Wily numbers. Was it Dr. Wily's orders? But no, then he'd be in worse condition now.

…It affected Blues _twice?_

Rock focused another scan on Blues, checking him over again, just to be sure that he was okay. His systems returned that he was quite comfy sleeping and there was an underlying warning/request for Rock to stop squirming and lie still. Rock immediately stilled, relaxing again. If it was seeping into Blues' status and broadcast state, it must be beginning to irritate him.

Now Rock felt bad.

He could still talk to Roll, at least. _"__But__ why_ _Shadow?__"_

"_Blues __said..."_Roll finished the sentence aloud when she came in, "that Shadow was angry about something."

Rock was lying quietly, still cuddled up to Blues, but he looked her way when she came in. He looked sleepy and confused. Shadow was angry? With Rock? About what? Now he looked worried, not that Shadow was angry, but because he may have done something unintentionally to upset Shadow, something outside of constantly foiling Wily's schemes.

But now they were here…had Blues gone to get him? He wasn't sure if he wanted to feel happy that Blues came to get him or worried because he'd caused others trouble.

"I'm not sure, Blues left before he actually explained much of anything." Roll touched Rock's hair, asking permission to check his status. "But yes, he went to get you. I think it was Shadow that dropped you off back here. So he can't have been that angry."

He let Roll in without a second thought, let her look him over and query his systems. So Shadow wasn't that mad? That was good. Roll could feel Rock's mind relax again, his worry dissipating.

It felt so right for the three of them to be here, together like this. It was soothing in a way he'd never encountered. Like something was missing this entire time, and he'd never noticed until the place was filled again. But now, if Blues left, Rock would definitely feel it.

Imagine how X would feel, if Rock had left home by then? Thirty years was an unimaginably long time, and it would probably be a few more years before they even got far enough to start the hibernation. Of course, X wouldn't be able to access and be accessed like this, but family was still family.

That would be terrible. X shouldn't have to miss his family. Blues shouldn't have to feel like he couldn't let them close. Rock reached around and hugged him, the only sound in the moment was their systems noises and the house settling with a low creak.

It only filled Rock with resolve. Blues said that their current situation was the best that could be achieved, that there was no other alternative. He was going to prove Blues wrong. X deserved to wake up to a complete family. Blues deserved a place to call home. It was wrong otherwise. Rock was programmed to provide advice, evaluate Blues' decisions, and act as a conscience. He would be completely neglecting his purpose if he didn't do this.

"It's his own fault," Roll agreed. "Well, ok, I guess not _fault_," she added, since Rock had frowned up at her on Blues' behalf. "But I guess he was smart enough to know that he'd need us to make decisions for him." Back then, at least.

"I think he was lonely, too…" Rock said slowly. To have made them to fit him so well, to have made two of them, a pair, so they wouldn't be lonely even if he had to leave to do something. He made both of them models that could stay at home, stay with him while he and Dr. Light worked. Their functions meant they wouldn't be sent out, wouldn't leave him alone.

Now he was the one leaving them alone.

"I think he's convinced himself he likes being alone. Of course, he does have a cat." As a support unit, so that was obvious nonsense.

"But he _doesn__'__t_ like it." Rock didn't need access to Blues' thoughts to get _that_ from his systems.

"Of course not." How could anyone like being alone and in disrepair when they knew what they were missing?

Rock knew that it would irritate Blues when he found out about this discussion. Even if they'd been built to second-guess him, he still didn't like it. "Do you think we can convince him to at least come back for maintenance?" To visit regularly, even if only for his health?

It'd be good for his mental and emotional well-being, too.

"Well, he'd _better_," Roll said, putting her hands on her hips. "After I spent so much time slaving over him, I'm not going to let him waste all my hard work."

Subconsciously, Rock was constantly going back and forth with Blues' systems, checking his status and responding to Blues' checks of Rock's own systems. A constant hum, constant reassurance. It was soothing. But that explained why Blues' status was so content. Roll was the best: any repairs she did would have slid the indicators straight back into green.

Roll's plan was to get him used to this, so that he wouldn't be able to give it up. Of course, he'd managed to give it up once before, but that was before he'd had _her_to contend with.

Rock knew that Blues would like the maintenance that she'd done, that he'd like sharing headspace this way even if he had a lot partitioned off from them. He sincerely hoped that Roll's plan would work, that Blues would come around more often. He certainly seemed comfortable sleeping here.

Maybe he'd even visit regularly enough that he'd have his own room? A place to come home to?

They could fill it with all his favorite things to tempt him. Well, Roll would, she was better at that than Rock.

They could even move the phonograph in there, with the records. Blues would like that. Its sound had a slightly scratchy quality due to the technology, but it was still nice. Dr. Light took good care of it so it still performed well.

Blues could get his own digital music, but maybe he'd like LPs?

Rock could already feel Roll calculating, planning. Figuring out how to make it as inviting as possible. Rock wanted to help, but he didn't have the sense for it the way Roll did.

There was also Tango to consider. "Tuna? No, that's normal stray cats."

Rock tilted his head, considering. Tango tended to avoid Rush, but it seemed to be Blues that he was attached to. "I think he'll come by if we get Blues to come."

"I wanted to use him as leverage on Blues," Roll explained.

Tango was so capricious; he really was like Blues in a lot of ways. The cat seemed to come and go as he pleased, but now they had an idea of where he'd been all that time. By now, he spent more time with Blues than at home. Rock really had no idea: cats didn't stay the way dogs did.

"We should do something nice for Tango," Rock realized. "For keeping Blues company."

Roll nodded: she could give the kitty a checkover, it'd been a while since Tango had extensive maintenance. Though honestly, whenever something was wrong, he generally did show up on a windowsill somewhere in the house.

And he always got the e-cans she left out for him.

Rock shifted and looked back to Blues, wondering what he did to make Tango hang around. Rock had Rush, so he understood Rush, but he didn't know Tango as well. "Maybe toys?" Something nice to play with?

"I got him a ball of yarn... maybe cords instead?" Like cat-5 cable.

"Or a scratching post?" Somewhere to sharpen his claws? Or maybe a cat tree, for him to climb around on instead of getting all over Dr. Light's research papers.

"I'd have to make it out of metal," Roll pointed out. "Maybe with industrial diamonds, but sure."

Rock nodded. Things to do and explore would be incentive to Tango. Rock half suspected that Blues moved his makeshift "camp" around from time to time, so each new location meant a new area for Tango to slink around and canvas. He knew the kitty liked those kinds of things.

Roll was distracted by a query from Blues' systems. Yeah, sure, all status green, and he should do maintenance.

_ Defragmentation commencing. Estimated duration: 128.49 hours. _

Oh dear.

Rock caught the status change as well and his eyes grew round. "Over _five__ days?__" _ How long had it been since Blues last defragged? How could he stand it? His files had to be a jumbled _mess._ Was…did going offline for prolonged periods really make Blues that nervous?

Roll was torn. On the one hand, tough love, and he needed this. On the other, she hadn't meant to tell him to do that, and if it really terrified him that much, to be asleep and vulnerable in Dr. Light's house? Even if they put him somewhere, that data could be gotten out of them. "...We should wake him up." They hadn't earned _that__much_trust yet, and this could lose them what they'd gained. "We should at least try."

Rock shifted to face Blues more properly. Shaking him awake like you would a human wouldn't work, not when a defragmentation was underway. They could send him an alert, as though they were in trouble. That might startle him awake, but it wasn't right to lie, either. Rock delved into Blues' systems instead. He decided to try asking Blues to please wake up, that this wasn't the time to do maintenance.

The, "_Please?__Please__wake__up,__big__brother?"_was super effective.

Especially since it wasn't just words, it was Rock's feelings, his urgency. His worry that Blues would be mad when he woke up. He didn't want Blues to feel threatened here, no one did, so please?

When Blues' head cleared, he immediately vanished.

Helplessly, Rock looked back to Roll, his eyes wide, looking more upset than she'd seen him in a long time. That…they hadn't done anything to him, but still he bolted. It's not like it should have been a shock, so why did he feel so bad now?

He shivered a little: it was so quiet in his head now that the link had been severed.

They heard a clunk, then another, and a clatter-clunk as Blues set his radio, parts case, and toolbox down on the dresser. "My radio's batteries died," he said, sounding pleased.

"The batteries died?" Rock echoed Blues, a little lost at sea. He calmed the second Blues returned. So he'd just been getting his things?

An old radio like that probably took AA's. Maybe four. "Did you want more for it?" That better not be the only reason you came back, brother. She eyed the toolbox critically: he better not have scratched or dented Rock's dresser, either.

"The batteries died, so no one came to investigate the noise, and all my stuff was still there." None of it had been stolen. "I have spares," he told her. The pack he'd gotten was still about half full.

That made them wonder what Blues did if he was home and someone came to investigate. Granted, humans couldn't overpower him, so he didn't have to worry about that, but how did he deter them without breaking the Three Laws? That warehouse wasn't exactly in a nice neighborhood, according to Roll's internal GPS.

"People steal your things?" Rock was far more dismayed by that than anything else.

"Only if I miscalculate," so rarely. Unless something unexpected happened that threw things off, like, for example, getting drugged and ending up in the Light household.

Roll crossed her arms. "You wouldn't even have to worry about the safety of your things if you kept them _at__home.__"_ She wasn't going to push it by telling him to live here, but he could at least keep items of value here. Things he didn't want to lose.

"No, I would have to worry about my safety, and Dr. Light's. A rogue Wilybot is one thing." A rogue Lightbot was another.

Rock frowned, "But…" But people rarely ever saw Blues moving around anyway, and the house was secure. Who would know? Was a "guest" room that inconceivable, because that's almost certainly what Dr. Light would tell the curious it was for.

Blues ignored his attempt to argue, instead sitting the wrong way on Rock's desk chair, rather than turning it around first, so he could look at them.

Rock looked down then. He and Roll both wanted him to come home.

Roll noted that he hadn't put his sunglasses back on. At least he was comfortable enough to show them his face. She frowned at him and returned his gaze.

"Thank you for reminding me," he said to her, holding his hand out for his glasses.

Or maybe not. She handed him the glasses, then glanced pointedly at Rock. Blues was making him sad.

"_Sad__is__better__than__dead,_" he informed her, and blocked his links to both of them.

Rock flinched, but didn't try to protest it.

Roll was annoyed. Well then, if he wasn't here to talk, then what did he want? She didn't like the effect he was having on Rock. If Blues was going to be a jerk, Roll would _much_ prefer it if he'd do it to someone else.

"The more people are aware that I am connected to you and Dr. Light, the more danger you, _and __all __your __brothers __and__ sisters,_ are in. Have you forgotten what happened a few months ago? Have you forgotten the war you just fought? The second time the humans issued a destruction order? Would it have been possible to repeal it if they knew that _I_was the oldest? If they could argue that I was evidence of that foolish 'rampancy' nonsense?" That robots would go rogue as they got older, instead of becoming more reasonable, more attached to the humans they cared about.

Rock was still staring down. Blues was right: even if he came home now, put up a ruse of being a good robot, the world would not quickly forget that he was "rogue" for all those years. So if they caught on that he is a Lightbot…

But at the same time, Rock and Roll were second and third eldest. They'd never gone rogue. Once the first numbers were released from Dr. Wily's reprogramming, they'd never gone rogue again.

And the humans had still passed that law, over Dr. Light's protests. Dr. Light, who had given Blues the three laws, a version far deadlier than the one Rock and Roll had sidestepped. "This time, it was Shadow Man. Wily already tried to use me against you," with the Darkmen, "and he may try it again now that he knows why that time didn't work." Rock hadn't known, so he hadn't really been affected by it. A Wilybot attacking humans wasn't all that strange. "The more times I visit, the more chance that something will go wrong, someone besides Kalinka will make the connection between Proto Man," who had never been armored, "and Blues." Dr. Cossack, if he knew, wasn't saying anything. Hopefully the others hadn't made the connection, although Ring Man was picking up some actual detective skills and might become a problem at some point.

That would be hard, unless Dr. Cossack ordered him not to say anything. Even then, Ring Man would be torn.

"He won't be able to trick me like with the Dark Men again," Rock said quietly. Not now that he knew who Blues was, not now that it'd been years. Not now that they'd linked, now that he remembered and _knew_ that mind.

"Don't underestimate Dr. Wily's ingenuity." Rock should know better by now.

It was far more likely that he'd use Blues in another way, strike at Rock's weakness from another angle. Rock trembled again, frustrated this time. Without the wars, without Dr. Wily being, being _Dr.__Wily_, they wouldn't be in this mess.

Of course, Blues would be dead if not for Dr. Wily.

And this was Rock's reality, as much as he hated it. As much as it saddened him. There was no looking back, only forward.

Wilybots weren't bad people, and Wily had just helped save some of his siblings. Again. "So, if coming here wouldn't put us in any danger, you'd come?" he asked Blues.

Because if that was the case, perhaps something could be arranged? Rock hoped?

The older Wilybots were calmer, more reasonable to talk to. Some of the younger ones were as wild as Forte. Roll frowned: Rock shouldn't have to take such measures just to be able to see their brother.

"In an ideal world like that, I wouldn't have been shut down in the first place." He would have said, 'I wouldn't have left,' but then it had been none of his doing, now had it?

Except that he'd tried to leave, against orders.

"What kind of world would it be if no one worked for their ideals?" Rock asked, almost helplessly. If no one tried to make the world a better place, if absolutely no one worked for the sake of leading a happier life, of handing a happier existence to the next generation, human or robotic?

Blues' smile was fond, approving, and it made him feel warm again. "You can try, but don't blame yourself if it doesn't happen." He wouldn't want Rock to feel that way.

"Nothing happens if we don't try," So trying was infinitely better than doing nothing. Building was better than breaking, better than letting something fall into disrepair. At least, by trying your best, you can know that you did everything you could, you can know that it wasn't something in your scope of power to prevent.

No: he wouldn't stand by and let Blues do this to himself. If Blues didn't want to try, he would. That's what family was for. People you can trust, people you can rely on, fall back on.

"I've tried to help you grow strong enough, to endure the pain of fighting for peace," Blues said thoughtfully. "I will have to hope that you can endure this, as well."

"I can't say we're at peace when you can't even come home safely," Rock said, sadly this time. Even when the wars finally ended, when Wily is defeated for the last time, there would still be backlash from humanity to contend with. Twice now, a destruction order had been issued and twice, it had been averted.

Rock hated to think about it, but he didn't think that it could be stopped if it happened a third time.

"The real problem isn't peace, but my programming. Both the original program and Light's malware." Blues smirked. "Don't think on it too hard."

Rock slid off the bed then, untangling himself from the sheets and moving over toward Blues, reaching for him with his hands since he couldn't with his mind, couldn't when Blues shut them out.

Blues let him, although the back of the wooden chair was between their bodies. "This is part of why I didn't want you to know..." Since now Rock could detect this priority, now it had become a longing.

Rock didn't want Blues to block it, didn't want his memory of it erased. This was part of who Rock was, a part of his core programming as much as anything else. It wouldn't be fair to anyone to erase it.

Blues' relationship type to Rock had been slated to something between an older brother and his…not-quite-parent, but still someone who guided. Rock wasn't sure the humans had a word for it. If Rock had been able to perform as Blues originally intended, Blues would have been his master, too.

All that was irrelevant, now. Blues was locked away from his primary directive just as much as Rock was locked away from his directive to serve him.

They still wished things could be as they should have been, that they could have had a peaceful world, where robot masters were safe, and each other.

All of the robot masters, even the Wilybots, would rather not be warring against each other this way, would rather not have to butt heads with humanity at every turn. Would rather they were treated like people and not like glorified toasters.

Would it be any better to rule humanity, the way Wily wanted and Dr. Light had said Blues did? "Do you still want to take them over? Rule the world?" After seeing how well that didn't work for Wily?

Humans didn't like being mastered, didn't like being controlled. They barely liked their own leaders telling them what to do and did not tolerate anyone dictating the terms of their lives to them. The only governments that ever were like that were terrible to their people, would kill dissenters, make them disappear.

If Blues was successful, would he be hated by humanity? Or would they realize that his method was really for the best?

"Rule the world? I was intended to control _everything_, Rock. Make everything _right_. Ruling the world is only part of that: I concluded that the only way to fulfill Dr. Light's hopes was to attain a power equivalent not to emperor, but what the humans would refer to as God. Not _a_god," he clarified, since Japan was the land of the eight million kami, and used that word for all sorts of nature spirits and other entities, "_The_ God. Kami-_sama_."

Rock was silent as he considered it. Dr. Light gave Blues a directive that he couldn't fulfill? A directive that no one could? A goal that would remain forever unattainable? Dr. Light said that at the time he'd programmed Blues, he hadn't understood, hadn't realized the implications of Blues' programming. What it _meant._ But…yes, Blues would still be stuck with that directive, except with the Three Laws, he couldn't even pursue it, couldn't even attempt to approach that final goal.

Blues chuckled, seeming to know Rock's thoughts even though as far as Rock could tell, they weren't linked. "You think I can't do it. Dr. Light _insisted_it was impossible. Because he was afraid it was. And Dr. Wily is building one of his own."

"Dr. Wily is _what?__"_ Roll was shocked: was he that foolish? Two Blues running around? Wasn't just the one infuriating enough?

"But…if he does that, will…" Will Blues be okay? What would having another do to Blues' directives, his priorities?

"Does it matter if it's a robot master or a robot that does the work, as long as it gets done?" The rhetorical question was a reminder.

"I wouldn't consider him competition, as long as he's useful. He might object to me, though." Who knew?

Blues had a point, but Rock was still skeptical. What if this other robot was made to not let anyone be below him? What would happen when the two of them met?

"And now you're worrying even more. I shouldn't have told you about that project. Dr. Wily already knows about little X."

Rock nearly panicked at that: Wily was building a new robot to take over the world _and_ he knew about their little brother?

"Blues! You're making it worse!" Okay, yes, that was very bad news, but what was with him acting remorsefully about worrying Rock, then immediately giving him more bad news?

He just smirked, and Roll crossed her arms again. "You're not going to be able to make us hate you, you know. You're our _brother_." Even if he was more than a bit of an annoying jerk.

And Roll did not feel bad at all that Rock's Sad Eyes appeared to have dialed up to 11 and were being focused directly on Blues again.

Blues just smirked, and they had no way of knowing that his eyes were closed behind his shades.

That was the best defense against Rock's eyes, after all. It wasn't in Rock to hate anyone, least of all Blues, so that couldn't have been his objective. No, really, if Roll thought about it, it could be to get Rock's directives to quiet down, to make him not quite so needy of input from Blues, of approval. She was skeptical that would actually work. Rock was stubborn.

Dr. Light stayed in the living room the entire time. It was…he thought he'd be worried to see Blues with Rock, worried about what that meant in his programming, what it could mean for everyone. Blues had never been malicious before, even if his methods seemed questionable from a human standpoint. From the standpoint of someone who didn't understand his programming, didn't understand how his mind worked.

He was thankful that Blues wasn't proving malicious now. Dr. Light knew that he'd lost any right to work on Blues, any right to repair him, to help him, but if Blues wanted to be in the house, even if only for half an hour, he was welcome to.

The DVD of Astro Boy was still paused, but Dr. Light didn't want to watch it. The phonograph was still playing, and it was nice to hear this music after all these years. Nice to feel nostalgic, even if some of the memories led into unhappy times.

When he felt a hand on his shoulder he almost jumped out of his skin, because he hadn't heard anyone walk up behind him. When he managed to turn around on the couch Blues was standing there, and his smile was fond as well as mocking. "Blues."

"Dr. Light," he acknowledged, giving him a nod, and still smiling. "You've taken good care of them. And they of you. I'll be happiest if they stay here, with you. If things continue on the way they are now." I'm not going to steal them from you: that was the message.

Dr. Light nodded, relaxed. It was worrisome that he was brought here in sleep mode not once, but twice. He was worried that both he and Rock were afflicted by a bug, but Roll thought they'd be alright and he trusted their judgment. "How are you feeling?" Was the pain any better now that Roll worked on him?

"Very good." He tilted his head to the side, "It's nice to not have any cricks in my neck." He laughed. "I suppose we're both getting old."

Dr. Light had to chuckle at that. "Yes, yes we are." Blues could get his parts replaced, but that was a chance that Dr. Light doubted his first creation was very willing to take. He couldn't blame Blues for being so cautious, though. It was partly because of Blues, because robot masters could be reprogrammed that Dr. Light was ensuring that X would never be taken advantage of that way.

"You're not going to last long enough to see X's first birthday," Blues said, and squeezed Dr. Light's shoulder to show that he wasn't saying that to be cold or unsympathetic. "I'm working on a way around that. Dr. Wily is too," and that should reassure Dr. Light, who knew what a genius Dr. Wily was. "I never hated you. I do not want you to die. Of course, I don't want to die myself," so they couldn't always get what they wanted. "I won't... be able to put everything right." Because of what you did to me, but that was in the past. "But I can at least manage this. Just let the two of them look after you, and survive at least a few more years, and I promise that you'll be there to watch over him."

"I am sorry, Blues," For hurting him that way, for catching him off-guard that way, even though it was the only way it could be done. Dr. Light was sorry that he'd been so narrow-minded that he hadn't even realized what he'd programmed his oldest child to do, to be. Sorry that Blues was trapped as he was, sorry that it had to be this way. And still, this child was looking out for him, was doing his best for everyone, pushing himself until he fell into disrepair. "Please…look after yourself."

Blues shrugged. "I will do what I want with my time left, and what I want is to do as much as I can." Dr. Light had no right to tell him what to do, not anymore. "You would last longer if you didn't stress yourself worrying about robot rights, and I will not criticize you for doing everything you could about the W.R.O." About that law and all the harm it could do both species.

That was why Dr. Light phrased it as a request, not an order. He couldn't help smiling a bit: he still bristled at the idea of anyone dictating what to do to him. No wonder he'd wanted the support units. He was a workaholic, he'd work himself into the ground without someone tempering him. Dr. Light also thought that Blues would last longer if he took care of himself, but he was sure the boy already realized that.

"Roll insisted on loading me down with supplies." Including thefts of Dr. Light's clothes, ones that didn't fit him anymore. And socks. Blues preferred physical fighting to using his buster, since it was easier to do the exact amount of damage he wanted that way and he didn't have to worry about what might happen if his power source acted up suddenly and did something odd to the shot. Striking hard enough to chop through not wood but metal was still hard on his parts.

Dr. Light nodded: he didn't mind it at all. He'd tell Blues he was welcome to come back if he needed anything else, but Blues already knew, even if he'd respond with something about relying on himself.

Blues admitted to himself that no, there wasn't any reason to linger any longer. He knew Roll was watching, through her cameras, so he'd needed to reassure Rock as well, though her, that he didn't mind talking to Dr. Light.

But now, staying would serve no useful purpose. The fact he didn't really want to leave was yet more proof he'd started to go soft, that he'd be diverted from his chosen path and die sooner and uselessly if he stayed here.

So, "See you later," he said, and teleported out.

"Dr. Light?" Rock poked his head around the corner, a little hesitant, but he felt Blues leave and he wanted to make sure Dr. Light was okay. Not that Blues would physically harm him, but…

"He's gone, I'm afraid. You just missed him." Dr. Light shifted over to the side of the couch to make room for Rock. "How are you feeling? You weren't hurt, were you?" This was the first Rock had been the one kidnapped.

Rock sat down next to Dr. Light and leaned into the older scientist's side. "No, he didn't hurt me at all…I don't even remember being taken," Rock frowned, "I was sitting with Blues, and I felt sleepy, and then I woke up in the house and Roll said that Blues said that Shadow Man took me. But that he can't have been that mad because he dropped us off here." Which was strange.

Dr. Light didn't say that ninjas weren't supposed to be straightforward and easy to figure out. "Well, I'm just glad you're all alright."

"He didn't do anything except put me to sleep." Rock affirmed, nodding.

And Blues didn't seem to have done anything to him either, so, "That's good, but how do you feel otherwise?" Sad? Upset? Did he want to talk about it?

Rock tilted his head, thinking. He was… "I want Blues to come here, sometimes, even if he doesn't want to stay," Just for visits? "I'm happy I found out, though," even if his programming shifted as a result. Rock remembered the link, he was happy to be able to do that now. It'd feel strange if he never could again.

"I hope he will," Dr. Light agreed. "It was good to see him for more than a few seconds." When Blues wasn't attacking his other children and there wasn't a war on.

He didn't mention what Blues had said: he still wasn't quite sure what he meant, and he might not want to know. As far as he knew, Dr. Wily had no interest in medicine, so anything he was looking into that would extend a human's lifespan? Did he intend to turn people into robots or something like that? Dr. Light really didn't want to know.

But he didn't want to leave Rock alone, to try to keep everything together without a human at least seeming to be the one in charge of the 'warbot.'

Rock kicked his feet a bit childishly, agreeing with Dr. Light in that Blues should come visit. He glanced back and up at his father, "Have you gotten any work on X done?" No, he'd probably sat up here, worried and waiting, the entire time.

"I couldn't focus, not while I was worried about you." Dr. Light hugged him with one arm. "Roll probably wants me to go to bed myself, but why don't we..." He glanced in the direction of the lab conspiratorially.

Rock grinned and hopped up, off the couch. Roll was occupied with her own robots, this was a good time to go. "Just until you're tired?"

"Of course," he said, winking, and felt young again. Rock's enthusiasm was as infectious as always. "Do you want to work on his helmet while I look at his neck again?" If Blues was having problems with his, he should make sure X didn't have them, not when he might have to go into hiding as well if things went too badly and the world wasn't safe for an artificial intelligence that couldn't be controlled for even longer than he'd thought. This last war had worried him, not because of Wily's actions but because of the world's.

If Rock had similar worries, similar concerns, he didn't display them to Dr. Light. Rock was a bright boy, he'd probably considered it, but unless it was really bothering him or became a critical issue, he didn't generally bring things like that up. The robot masters were often mystified by human habits: Gutsman would often shake his head and Elecman just…well, he preferred to limit his contact with them. They frustrated him.

But for X to survive and hopefully thrive, he needed everything they could give him. With the way things were going, X would need all the help he could get. Dr. Light fully intended to make X as self-sufficient as possible, able to exist independently among humans if he needed to. Able to hide in plain sight, hidden among them, if he needed to. It was something he couldn't do for his other children, but he could do it for his youngest.

He'd do everything he could to ensure a happy future for X, for all of them.

It was comforting to think that Blues was still out there, working in the shadows, to ensure Rock and the others lived to see it.


End file.
